Rene Napangardi Dixon, Mina Mina Dreaming - Ngalyipi, 61x46cm

• Artist - Rene Napangardi Dixon
• Community - Nyirripi  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 322/17ny   
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas  
• Size(cm) - H61 W46 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming) comes from Mina Mina, a very important women’s Dreaming site far to the west of Yuendumu near Lake Mackay and the WA border. The ‘kirda’ (owners) of this Dreaming are Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men; the area is sacred to Napangardi and Napanangka women. There are a number of ‘mulju’ (water soakages) and a ‘maluri’ (clay pan) at Mina Mina.

In the Dreamtime, ancestral women danced at Mina Mina and ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks) rose up out of the ground. The women collected the digging sticks and then travelled on to the east, dancing, digging for bush tucker, collecting ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine [Tinospora smilacina]), and creating many places as they went. ‘Ngalyipi’ is a rope-like creeper that grows up the trunks and limbs of trees, including ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak [Allocasuarina decaisneana]). It is used as a ceremonial wrap and as a strap to carry ‘parraja’ (coolamons) and ‘ngami’ (water carriers). ‘Ngalyipi’ is also used to tie around the forehead to cure headaches, and to bind cuts.

The women stopped at Karntakurlangu, Janyinki, Parapurnta, Kimayi, and Munyuparntiparnti, sites spanning from the west to the east of Yuendumu. When they stopped, the women dug for bush foods like ‘jintiparnta’ (desert truffle [Elderia arenivaga]). The Dreaming track eventually took them far beyond Warlpiri country. The track passed through Coniston in Anmatyerre country to the east, and then went on to Alcoota and Aileron far to the northeast of Yuendumu and eventually on into Queensland.

In Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa and other elements. In many paintings of this Jukurrpa, sinuous lines are used to represent the ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine). Concentric circles are often used to represent the ‘jintiparnta’ (desert truffles) that the women have collected, while straight lines can be used to depict the ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks).

“I like to paint my father’s and my mother’s Jukurrpa.”

Rene Napangardi Dixon was born in 1975 in Darwin Hospital, far from her home in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 1,749 km south of Darwin and 290 km north-west from Alice Springs. She began her schooling at the Yuendumu primary school and finished her schooling at Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. After leaving school Rene travelled, “…looking around countryside, staying with family and learning about country.” In Kintore, she met her partner and they had a daughter. In 1989 she moved to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community 130 km north west of Yuendumu, with her children, and to be with family.

She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2009. She mainly paints her father’s Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming -  Ngalyipi), but can also paint her mother’s Janganpa Jukurrpa (Possum Dreaming). Mina Mina Jukurrpa relates directly to an area west of Nyirripi and is an important women’s ceremony site. Her ‘dreamings’ were passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. Rene uses traditional shapes and an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.