Maisie Gibson Naparurrula / Women’s Ceremony

Maise Gibson Naparurrula is a Pintupi woman from Kiwirrkurra, an area west of Alice Springs. The Pintupi people were the last of the Aboriginal tribes to be located by the European settlers. It is for this reason that many of the designs relate to strong tribal issues that remain important to the Pintupi artists.

Coming from an artistic lineage, Maise’s mother is Monical Napaltjarri and she is the niece of senior male artists Warlimpirrnga, Walala and Thomas Tjapaltjarri.

Maisie is known for her bold linear style. The Dreamings that she paints are traditional designs associated in the main with the Tingari themes, depicting sacred women’s ceremonial sites, the performance of their dancing and the designs painted on the upper part of their bodies for Women’s Business (Law). It is understood that the Tingari are a group of mythical characters of her people’s Dreamtime who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating particular important sites. The Tingari women usually followed the Tingari men, accompanied by novices. It is the Tingari men and women’s travels and mystical deeds that are enshrined in a number of song, dance and story cycles.

Maisie, her husband Ian and their children divide their time between Alice Springs, Kintore and Kiwirrkurra community.

Maisie paints her country where you find the sacred women’s sites between the communities of Kintore and Kiwirkurra in the Western Desert of Central Australia. Her people would conduct important ceremonies at these sites and tell stories of travelling ancestors who would gather at these sites to rest, sing and dance. Maisie’s choice of colours represent the more traditional pigments used for ground designs and body decoration.