Yalti Napangati

Marrapinti

2020

Marrapinti is a place known for its rockhole and soakage. In the Tjukurrpa, a large group of women gathered at this site during their travels eastward. While here, they made nose bones which are also called marrapinti. Nose bones are a body ornamentation in which the nose web is pierced and a bone is inserted. This ornamentation was originally worn by both men and women but are not only worn by the older generation for ceremonies. The shapes in this painting represent both the geographical features of the landscape and the bush foods the women collected on their journey.

Language Group: Pintupi
Date: Born 1969

Yalti Napangati was born at Marruparingya, north of Kiwirrkurra. She is the sister of Yukultji Napangati, a well-known artist who paints for Papunya Tula Artists and is also a shareholder of the company. Yalti and Yukultji were one of several family members whom, while living a traditional desert lifestyle, set out to find lost relatives and encountered them at Winparrku (Mount Webb) outstation in 1984. When it was discovered that this was their first encounter with non-indigenous Australians, the news made national headlines. Yalti settled in Kiwirrkurra, with her husband, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri. She began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1996. In 1999, Yalti contributed to the Kiwirrkura women’s painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Yalti’s artworks represent her homelands, particularly the sandhill country where Tingarri ancestral women journeyed eastward.

YALTI NAPANGATI, Marrapinti, 2020

Synthetic polymer paint on canvas. 24 × 215/8 in. (61 × 55 cm). Commissioned by Richard Klingler and Jane Slatter for Irriṯitja Kuwarri Tjungu | Past and Present Together.

Yalti Napangati.

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