Kapi Tjukurrpa (Water Dreaming) near Malparingya

This painting depicts body paint designs associated with the Kapi (Water) Tjukurrpa near Malparingya. In the Tjukurrpa, a large group of Tingari Men camped at this site before continuing their travels further west. Since events associated with the Tingari Cycle are of a secret nature no further detail was given. Generally, the Tingari are a group of ancestral beings who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari Men were usually followed by Tingari Women and accompanied by novices, and their travels and adventures are enshrined in a number of song cycles.

 

Aubrey Tjangala was born in 1974 at the Pintupi outstation of Yayi Yayi, approximately 30km west of Papunya. Yayi Yayi was a temporary settlement set up by the Pintupi people as they began their migration back to their Western Desert homelands from Papunya, where they had earlier been centralised by the government welfare branch. After Kintore Community was established in the early eighties, Aubrey lived for a while on his father’s oustation known as Ininti, slightly northwest of the community. Aubrey went through traditional law in Tjukurla and has since been a permanent resident of Kintore. He is the son of renowned painter Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, a shareholder, former Director of Papunya Tula Artists, and one of the most important artists in the company’s history. Aubrey’s style is closely recognisable to that of his father, no doubt as a result of him watching and studying his father working for over four decades. Aubrey painted his first works for the company in 2019 and has since become a regular figure in the Kintore studio. As a traditional owner of the country close to Kintore his paintings refer to the stories central to that area, including the story of the Two Travelling Women, the Perentie Dreaming and the Fire Dreaming at Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).