Desphina Nampijinpa Brown, Mina Mina Dreaming - Ngalyipi, 30x30cm

• Artist - Desphina Nampijinpa Brown
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 889/16ny
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang.

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).

Desphina Nampijinpa Brown was born in 1996 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located approximately 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the grand-daughter of Margaret Napangardi Brown (Dec) and niece to Joy Nangala Brown, both Warlukurlangu artists. Desphina has grown up most of her life in Nyirripi, first attending the local school then moving to Alice Springs where she attended Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. When she finished school she returned to Nyirripi.

She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu. Warlukurlangu makes regular visits to Nyirripi to drop off canvas, paint and brushes for the artists and to collect finished artwork. When Desphina was young she would watch her grandmother paint and listen to her stories. Since returning to Nyirripi family members have encouraged her to paint. She paints her Grandmother’s Mina Mina Jukurrpa, stories that relate to her country, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories have been passed down through the generations for a least 50 millennia.

When Despina is not painting she loves to play softball and basketball and travel to other communities to watch the Sport Carnivals.  After the Carnival season she likes to go hunting for witchetty grubs and honey ants.