Indigenous
Art of the Dreamtime
Warlpiri artist, Pansy Napangardi was born in 1949 and grew up on a mission settlement at Haast’s Bluff in Central Australia. She moved to Alice Springs in 1989. “When I was a young girl we always travelled around a lot. We’d go to a swimming hole, hunting or gathering bush tucker. Later on I saw my uncle painting and I asked him, ‘Can you tell me my mother’s dreaming? I want to put them down.” She did learn those dreamings although they came through her mother’s cousin who sketched them out for her in the desert sand. This was the time-honoured way of passing on stories of the Jukurrpa. These are the dreamings she paints to this day. They include: Seven Sisters, Hail, Desert Raisin and Kungka Kutjara (Two Women).
She practised creating these stories for herself on paper
and later used her designs to develop collages made from innate seeds. These seeds were
normally used by the women to make decorative jewellery. After gaining valuable experience
with these forms, Pansy moved finally into her preferred medium, acrylic on canvas.
Although it has been said that Aboriginal women have only been painting since the 1980’s, Pansy considers that she, like her sister Eunice Napangardi, commenced painting earlier. She began recording her dreamings in the early 1970’s at the start of the Papunya art movement. By observing Johnny Warangkula and Kaapa, two established artists, Pansy’s style was gently formed. Pansy’s work gives voice to her traditional beliefs and symbolises a triumphal cultural statement by the once near- defeated people of the Central Australian Desert.
Her paintings are remarkable for their use of colour. Blues, greens and pinks create a spiritual vigour and nervous energy that excite the eye. They are refreshing with their striking vitality and diversity of shapes and patterns. Her paintings represent the fertility and glory of her traditional land, and make a statement about the unique relationship that she and her people have with that land. Pansy is an artist who constantly experiments and surprises. Her close contact with Non-Aboriginal Australians has led her in her search of new rhythms and frontiers yet she always remains firm within the confines of Aboriginal traditions.
Her work was seen at the 1988 Brisbane Expo as well as on the cover of ‘The Inspired Dream’, which was published at the same time. She has had several solo exhibitions, one of them at the Sydney Opera House. Her work has featured in many group exhibitions including ‘Mythscapes’ at the National Gallery Canberra and the ‘Karnta’ exhibition at the New South Wales Art Gallery. In 1989 Pansy Napangardi was awarded the 6th National Aboriginal Art Award and in 1993 the Northern Territory Art Award, both highly-sought after awards in the Aboriginal art world. During 1998-2000 her work is touring Australia in the successful “Tjinytjilpa” exhibition which had earlier been shown in Washington DC.
This painting depicts women who are grinding seeds to make damper - bush bread. The women are depicted by the “U” shapes and are shown seated with coolamons, represented by the “0” shapes. |
