Aubrey Tjangala

Walungurru

2020

This painting depicts Walungurru (Kintore). In the Tjukurrpa, a ngintaka (perentie lizard) traveled to Walungurru from the west. Two women tracked it to this place and eventually found it. One woman held it down while the other killed it. They stab him with their wana (digging sticks) at a place called Yunytjunya, which translates as “throat place,” referencing the body of Ngintaka, who turned to stone raised high on his front limbs in the characteristic pose of an upstretched lizard.

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born 1970

Aubrey Tjangala was born at the Pintupi outstation of Yayayi, which was a temporary settlement set up by the Pintupi people as they began their migration back to their Western Desert homelands from Papunya. He is the son of world renowned painter Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, a shareholder, former Director of Papunya Tula Artists, and one of the most important and successful artists in the Company’s history. Aubrey painted his first works for Papunya Tula Artists in 2019 and has since become a regular figure in the Walungurru (Kintore) studio. As a traditional owner of the country close to Walungurru, his paintings refer to the Tjukurrpa central to that area, including the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women Dreaming), Ngintaka (Perentie Lizard) and the Fire Dreaming at Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).

Biographical information courtesy of Papunya Tula Artists.

AUBREY TJANGALA, Walungurru, 2020

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 24 × 215/8 in. (61 × 55 cm). Commissioned by Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter for Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past and Present Together.

View from Walungurru (Kintore) showing Puli Kutjarra (left) and Yunytjunya (right), May 2021.

Photo by John Kean.

Aubrey Tjangala

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