Debra Nangala McDonald / Women’s Dreaming (5A)

Debra McDonald Nangala, was born in November 1969 at Papunya Camp. She is the granddaughter of the late Shorty Lungkata Tjungurrayi (c.1920-1987) who was a Pintubi man from Lake MacDonald in the Gibson Desert, Central Australia. In 1948 he moved to Haasts Bluff and Papunya, and both Debra and Shorty’s stories refer to his country of Lake MacDonald.

Debra was married to the nephew of Turkey Tolson and son of the great female artist Mitjili. Her paintings have been documented in Geoffrey & James Bardon’s book “Papunya A Place Made After the Story. The Beginning of the Western Desert Painting Movement”

Debra uses vibrant colours to depict a sacred Women’s Dreaming story paints from the ancestral country of her grandfather Shorty Lungkata.

Kungka Kutjarra (two women ancestors) wandered through the country around Warlungurru (Kintore). They tracked a perentie lizard, creating a soakage at Lampintjanya near the Kintore Range as they speared the giant lizard with a digging stick. The women then travelled through Kultukatjarra (Docker River) to Illiningarrara and eventually, Tjukurla creating waterholes, rivers, walking tracks and caves along the way.