Karrinyarra

This painting depicts designs connected to the sacred site of Karrinyarra, to the north of Papunya. This is a Kapi (Water) Tjukurrpa and Yalka (Bush Onion) Tjukurrpa place. This is a place where the women collect yalka. Concentric circles represent waterholes or yalka. Bush onions may be eaten raw or cooked after removing the hard casing. They are a small onion sedge with corms on shallow roots, the size of a small shallot. Women perform a traditional ceremony in honour of the Yalka where they dance and paint their breasts, chest and forearms in ceremonial body designs. They also decorate their bodies with feathers and dance with ceremonial objects such as nulla nullas (ceremonial dancing baton).

 

Rosalie Miller Jugadai Napaltjarri was born in 1950 at Haasts Bluff. She is the daughter of Tilau Nangala and Henry Jugadai, whose younger brother Two Bob Tjungurrayi painted for many years with Paddy Carroll Tjungurrayi for Papunya Tula Artists at Three Mile outstation Papunya. Rosalie’s family moved to Papunya where she attended Papunya School and later worked in the pre-school as an Education Assistant. Rosalie now lives at Five Mile oustation, Papunya, where her first canvases were painted for the inaugural Papunya Tjupi exhibition at Ivan Dougherty Gallery in 2007. Rosalie was taught to paint by her mother Tilau, who also taught Rosalie’s daughters Heidi and Nana. Rosalie’s paintings usually depict the Bush Onion story for Karrinyarra, her father’s Dreaming.