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This website was developed for the exhibition Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past & Present Together: Fifty Years of Papunya Tula Artists that was on view at the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia from 2021-23 and the Embassy of Australia in Washington, DC in 2024. It was made possible by our creative partnership with Papunya Tula Artists and the generous support of UVA Arts Council. Site design by Urban Fugitive for V21 Artspace.
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Doreen Reid Nakamarra

Rockhole Site of Marrapinti
2006

Marrapinti is the rock hole site west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia.

Ancestral women of the Nangala and Napangati subsections camped at Marrapinti during their travels east. There, the women made nose bones, also known as marrapinti. During ceremonies relating to Marrapinti, the older women pierced the nasal septums of the younger women who were participating in the ceremony. Now, nose bones are only used by the older generation for ceremonies.

Upon completion of the ceremonies at Marrapinti, the women continued their travels east, passing through Wala Wala, Ngaminya and Wirrulnga, before heading north east to Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).

The lines in the painting represent the surrounding tali (sand hills) in the area around Wirrulnga. A group of ancestral women once gathered at this site to perform the dance and sing the songs associated with the area. Wirrulnga is known as a traditional birthing site for the women of the area, and while the women were at Wirrulnga a woman of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection gave birth to a son who was a Tjupurrula.

DOREEN REID NAKAMARRA

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1955-2009

Doreen Reid Nakamarrawas born in the desert on the east side of the mission settlement of Warburton in West Australia. She was raised in a traditional nomadic lifestyle and lived in many different areas throughout her life, including, Utju (Areyonga), Amata, and Docker River. Doreen began painting for Papunya in 1999. Since then, her work has been exhibited in Australia and internationally. In 2007, her work was shown at the National Gallery of Australia’s first Indigenous Triennial, Culture Warriors. Doreen was featured in the documentary Art+Soul and included in the major exhibition Everywhen: The Eternal Present in Indigenous Art from Australia In 2009, she was included in the Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art and in 2012, she was posthumously included in the dOCUMENTA (13) in Kassel, Germany. Her work is held in numerous important institutional collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria.

Are you related to this artist? Are you a scholar of artwork from the Papunya Tula movement? Please contact us at kluge-ruhe@virginia.edu if you would like to add something to this page or see something that is missing or incorrect.
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