Walangkura Napanangka (Uta Uta’s widow)

Women Making Hairstring at Tjukurla

2007

In the Tjukurrpa, a group of ancestral women gathered at Tjukurla, where a community exists today, to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with the place. While there, they also spun string from their hair, which they later made into Nyimparra (Hair-String Skirts) that are worn in specific ceremonies. Afterward they traveled north towards Walangurru (Kintore), gatherine large quantities of Pura (Bush Tomatoes), Mangata (Guandong or Native Peaches) and Kumpurarrpa (Desert Raisins). Bush tomatoes are about the size of a small apricot, and after the seeds have been removed and the fruit is halved and skewered on a stick, they can be stored for long periods of time. Native peach is a traditional bush food much sought after throughout the region, and desert raisins are eaten immediately or sometimes ground into a paste and rolled into a ball for preservation. These foods are represented in the painting by the many small circles.

I'm painting true stories of country and places where my people used to walk around.

WALANGKURA NAPANANGKA

Language Group: Pintupi
Dates: 1938-2014

Born in the desert close to Tjukurla (located in the Goldfields-Esperance Region of Western Australia) Walangkura was the daughter of Kunamangiritja Tjapangati and his Nakamarra wife. Walangkura and her older sister, Pirrmangka Reid Napanangka, both grew up “in the bush, naked” traveling through their families’ country, between Pangkupirri near Docker River and Walukirritji rock hole on the south-west side of Lake Macdonald. After working at Haast Bluff Mission as a teenager, Walangkura and her family moved to Papunya where she met and married Uta Uta Tjangala. As a young girl, Walangkura had been promised to another man for marriage. As a result, the promised man exacted revenge on Walangkura for her marriage to Uta Uta by striking her across both legs, crippling her. Walangkura became known locally around Kintore as the ‘barrow lady’ because her late husband, Uta Uta Tjangala, would carry her with him in a wheelbarrow. “He was a kind, gentle man,” she remembers of her late husband, “though he did often walk around with two very large boomerangs.” In 1997, Walangkura began painting for Papunya Tula Artists after visiting her daughter Edith Nampitjinpaat Walungurru. She was able to take Uta Uta’s influences and incorporate them into her own artistic style: “I’d been watching my husband,” remembered Walangkura, “Watching how he painted. I’m doing it myself, trying to look after myself now because no one else is looking after me.” In art as in life, Walangkura triumphed over her severe physical limitations. She would have younger relatives position her near a canvas so she could paint; if she worked on larger paintings, she would crawl into position on a blanket and work from the center to the perimeters. Her work is held in the National Gallery of Australia.

WALANGKURRA NAPANANGKA (Uta Uta’s widow), Women Making Hairstring at Tjukurla, 2007

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 35 7/8 × 24 1/8 in. (91.12× 61.3 cm). Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection of the University of Virginia, Museum purchase, 2008. 2008.0001.001.

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