Katherine Nakamarra

Kutungu at Tjintjintjin

2021

Tjintjintjin is a place with a rockhole and a cave, which is just west of the community of Kintore. It relates to an ancestral woman named Kutungka, who passed through the area on her travels. At this place, she knew there was an ancestral snake living underground. She dug for it, eventually finding and killing it. After cooking and eating it, she continued her journey east to Muruntji. There she was accosted by a group of boys, chased them down, and captured all of them except for the main culprit. After cooking them in a fire, she travelled to Kaltarra, where she entered the earth and remains there today.

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born 1968

Katherine Nakamarra is the daughter of Papunya Tula Artists, Walangkura Napanangka and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, as well as the sister of Papunya Tula artist Debra Nakamarra. Katherine began painting in the late 1980s, adopting a style similar to her mother’s. Katherine uses bold colors and heavy dot work to paint important women’s ceremonial sites around Kintore.

KATHERINE NAKAMARRA, Kutungu at Tjintjintjin, 2021

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 24 × 21 5/8 in. (61 × 55 cm). Commissioned by Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter for Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past and Present Together.

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