The lines in this painting represent the sandhills at the site of Marrapinti, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia, where a large group of ancestral women camped. While at this site, the women made nose bones, which are also known as marrapinti. These adornments involved piercing a hole in the nose web that connects the two nostrils, and inserting a bone. They were originally used by both men and women but are now only inserted by the older generation on ceremonial occasions. After this, the women continued their travels easy, gathering the edible berries known as kampurarrpa (desert raisins). These berries can be eaten directly from the plant, but are sometimes ground into a paste and preserved as food in the shape of a ball.

My mum, Yukultji Napangati, paints the Marrapinti story. And I’ve started painting it too. I tell the story for Marrapinti because of my grandmothers— that’s their Tjukurrpa, that’s their Dreaming. It’s just for the women. It’s the story of the young women having a ceremony with that nose bone (also called marrapinti), as they are changing from girls to proper women. That’s the Tjukurrpa for Marrapinti.