Ngoia Napaltjarri

Ancestral Women at Wilkinkarra

2019

This painting relates to the saltlake claypan called Wilkinkarri (Lake Mackay), near the community of Kiwirrkurra. In the Tjukurrpa, a group of ancestral women camped here to hold ceremonies connected to the claypan after traveling through the Kintore area. They collected pura (bush tomatoes) and kampurarrpa (desert raisins) as they traveled. The oval shapes represent these bush foods.

Language Groups: Warlpiri and Luritja
Date: Born 1948

Born in Haasts Bluff, Ngoia Napaltjarri is the daughter of Angoona Nangala and Jim Tjungurrayi. Traveling to Papunya with her family, Ngoia attended school and worked at the mission kitchen, painting her first work of art in 1997. While at Papunya, Ngoia met and married Papunya Tula artist Jack Tjampitjinpa, with whom she had five children. Her artistic career began by assisting Jack, and Ngoia later joined the Papunya Tula Artists as part of a larger move towards female representation in the company in the 1990s. Ngoia’s paintings frequently depict the sandhills of Ikuntji and are notable for their black and white palette and repeated oval shapes. Having won multiple awards and completing an artist residency in Copenhagen in 2006, Ngoia now lives at Mount Liebig with her family. In 2006, Ngoia was awarded first prize at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards.

NGOIA NAPALTJARRI, Ancestral Women at Wilkinkarra, 2019

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.

Ngoia Napaltjarri.

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