The ancestral travels of the trickster Yina (the “Old Man”) track a path from Kampurarrnga through Ngurrapalangu and Yumari and on westward, traversing precisely the traditional route that Pintupi would traverse across the desert plains. Yina’s exploits are reenacted in both painting and ceremony, particularly those involving his genitals, which frequently separate from his body and take on a life of their own. Considerable humor is found in Yina’s calling for his penis and testicles, which are variously bitten by ants or trodden on by dogs before turning to gold at Nyuntjulnga. For all the levity, however, Yina is also a frightening figure and the bearer of powerful sorcery. At Yumari—whose name literally translates as “mother-in-law place”—Yina breaks a sacred taboo and copulates with a woman who in desert kinship terms would be considered his mother-in-law. For this transgression, his penis is attacked by a swarm of ants.

There are many distinctive sites on Yina’s path, including an X-shaped rockhole at Yumari where he lay down before arising in the night to have sex with his mother-in-law. To the south of Yumari are a series of “standing rocks” called Tilirrangarranya (literally, “light the fire and stand”) where Yina stood by the fire and decorated himself the following morning. Suffering great pain from the ant bites on his penis, Yina fled westward, leaving many marks on the landscape, such as the limestone ridge of Yarrpalangunya, before disappearing in the far-western reaches of the desert.

If I don't paint this story, some whitefella might come and steal my country.