Catherine Nungarrayi Malbunka / Mina Mina Dreaming (4754-21ny)

Artwork is accompanied by Warlukurlangu Artists (Yuendumu) Art Centre Certificate of Authenticity / Provenance

Catherine Nungarrayi Malbunka was born in Papunya, a remote Aboriginal community located roughly 240 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. When she was young she attended the local school in Papunya and later went to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. When she finished school she held a number of jobs including working in the local store, helping out at the local school and working for the Women’s Centre, a group of volunteers who assist other organisations in the community. She moved to Yuendumu when she married Kipper Jupurrurla Ross and they have three children, Bradley, Charmaine and Malcolm.

Catherine has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2005. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and his father’s father before him for millennia. “I like to paint; I love the colours and my dreamings”.

When she is not painting she likes to go hunting for bush tucker and for witchetty grubs.

Mina Mina is the area or country this painting is depicting.  It is far west of Yuendumu and is very important to the Napangardi/Napanangka women.  These women and their Japangardi/Japanangka brothers, are the custodians of the Jukurrpa that created the area.  This story (Dreaming) tells of the journey of a group of women who travelled east gathering food, ngalyipi‟ (snake vine) and performing ceremonies as they journeyed. The ‘ngalyipi’ vine grows up the trunks and branches of the ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak trees). ‘Ngalyipi’ is a sacred vine to Napangardi and Napanangka women that has many uses. It can be used as a ceremonial wrap, as a strap to carry ‘parrajas’ (wooden bowls) that are laden with bush tucker and as a bandage for headaches.

The women began their travels at Mina Mina where karlangu‟ (digging sticks) emerged from the ground. Taking these tools the women travelled east creating Janyinki and other sites. Their travels took them eventually further than Warlpiri country. The women used the karlangu‟ to gather bush tucker on their travels. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, connected sites and other elements. The main theme used in paintings of these Dreaming are the karlangu‟