Winnie Reid Nakamarra / Ceremony (WR01)

Winnie Reid Nakamarra was born c. 1961 in Alice Springs.

Winnie is the forth child of one of Australia’s best known Indigenous artists, the late Makinti Napanangka. In 2008 Makinti won the $40,000 Telstra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Winnie’s father is Nyukuti Tjupurrula, brother of artist Nosepeg Tjupurrula. Winnie has three older siblings who also paint, Ginger Tjakamarra, Narrabri Narrapayi and Jacqueline Daaru.

Winnie moved with her family to Kintore when it was established in the early 1980’s. She paints women’s ceremonial stories associated with the rockhole site of Lupulnga.

This painting depicts designs associated with Women’s Ceremonies at the rockhole and soakage water site of Lupulnga, slightly south-west of the Kiwirrkura Community in Western Australia. In ancestral times a group of women gathered at this site after travelling from further west. The women visited Ngaminya to perform the dances and sing the songs associated with the area. They also spun hair-string with which to make hair-string skirts, which are worn during these ceremonies. The small circles in this painting represent edible berries and the larger circles are the very important waterhole where ceremonies were performed. The U shape represents the women sitting around the largest of the waterholes.