Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming)

Mina Mina is an extremely important ceremonial site for Napangardi and Napanangka women that is located approximately 600kms west of Yuendumu, just east of Lake Mackay and the WA border. The area has a marluri (salt lake or claypan) that is usually dry, without water. There are also a number of mulju (soakages), sandhills, and a large stand of kurrkara (desert oaks [Allocasuarina decaisneana]). The Mina Mina Jukurrpa is an important source of Warlpiri ritual knowledge and social organization, particularly relating to the different roles performed by men and women. The kirda (owners) of this country are Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men, who can depict portions of the Mina Mina Jukurrpa in their paintings. The Mina Mina Jukurrpa tells the story of a group of ancestral karnta (women) who travelled from west to east. The artists mother, Dorothy Napangardi (c.1956–2013) painted Mina Mina and has passed down her Jukurrpa stories to her children and asked them to continue to paint for her.

 

Julie Nangala Robertson is one of five daughters of well-known Telstra Award winning artist, Dorothy Napangardi. Since the late 1990’s, while often in the company of her mother, Julie has pursued and developed a creative visual language of her own, one which consists of a fascinating blend of stylised experimentation and ancient narrative. Usually an aerial perspective along with a more recently and established distinctive monochromatic pallette, Julie’s current paintings (which depict the topographical features of her traditional country at the site of Pirlinyanu) have become works of extraordinary optical brilliance as she alternates the size of dots throughout her work as well as building up specific shapes or reference points often repeated with overdotting. Julie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists since 2007.