This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site Yumari, east of the Kiwirrkura Community. This is the artist’s grandmother’s Country. At Yumari, group of ancestral women were sitting around the rockhole, having gathered the edible seeds known as wangunu or woollybutt (Eragrostis eriopoda) which are ground and mixed with water to a thick paste and formed into a type of damper which is cooked in the ashes. The site is also associated with a taboo relationship involving a mother-in-law and son-in-law. The women later travelled east to Pinari, north of Kintore.
Rosalyn Pollard Napangati was born in Papunya in 1974. She is the granddaughter of Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, sister of Wintjiya Napaltjarri, both renowned Papunya Tula artists. Rosalyn is also the niece of Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula. Rosalyn learned to paint by watching her grandmother, and has taken on her distinctive scratching technique – simultaneously applying and removing paint using a small clutch of sticks rather than brushes or dotting – as well as custodial rights for her grandmother’s site, Yumari. Rosalyn lives with her family in Walungurru (Kintore).
Desert Mob is presented annually in Mparntwe | Alice Springs on Arrernte Country.
On behalf of Desart’s staff and art centre members, the Executive Committee humbly and respectfully acknowledge the Arrernte Apmereke Artweye (Traditional Owners) and Kwertengerle (Traditional Managers) of Mparntwe.
Desart respectfully advises Aboriginal readers that this website may contain names, images and artworks of people who have passed away.
