Polly Anne Napangardi Dixon, Mina Mina Dreaming - Ngalyipi, 61x46cm

• Artist - Polly Anne Napangardi Dixon
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 3070/18
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas
• Size(cm) - H46 W61 D2 
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted un-stretched and 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).

Polly Anne Napangardi Dixon was born in 1980 in Darwin although her parents lived in Lajamanu, an Aboriginal community in semi-arid country on the edge of the Tanami Desert, halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. In the early 80s, when Polly Anne was a little girl, they moved to Yuendumu. She has two sisters and one brother. Her parents passed away several years ago and both her grandparents have passed away. Polly Anne went to Yuendumu Primary School then to Kormilda College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. When she finished her schooling she returned to Yuendumu where she worked as a receptionist for the Central Desert Shire (CDS), Centrelink/Council. When the office closed Polly Anne moved to Kalkaringi and from 2002 to 2005 worked on the Mount Theo Youth Program. Through her work she has traveled to Melbourne where she attended a workshop on youth funding for NT; and Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Ballarat. She also worked for PAW Media and Communications in camera and film editing, but now paints full time. In 2006 she met and married Cedric King. Polly Anne has two daughters from a previous relationship and two sons with Cedric. Polly Anne has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2006. Both her parents painted. She finds painting exciting, “I love the colours, and on weekends, when my kids are asleep, I paint Mina Mina Jukurrpa, Dreaming relating to Janyinki, my father’s country. When I was little my father took me there.” When Polly Anne is not painting she likes to go bushwalking with her friends and “I like to Google and see the outside – the other side of the world.”