DETAIL : Jimmy BAKER 'Katatjita' 2006 synthetic polymer paint on canvas, Courtesy of Marshall Arts Aboriginal Fine Art Gallery, � Jimmy Baker
Doreen Reid NAKAMARRA | Untitled

 
NAKAMARRA, Doreen Reid
Australia 1948 /1952
Untitled 2006
Painting
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
183.0 (h) x 153.0 (w) cm
Courtesy of a Private Collection, Melbourne
© Doreen Reid Nakamarra and Papunya Tula Artists
VIEW: ARTICLE | BIOGRAPHY |

Marrapinti is the rock hole site west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia.

Ancestral women of the Nangala and Napangati subsections camped at Marrapinti during their travels east. There, the women made nose bones, also known as marrapinti. During ceremonies relating to Marrapinti, the older women pierced the nasal septums of the younger women who were participating in the ceremony. Now, nose bones are only used by the older generation for ceremonies.

Upon completion of the ceremonies at Marrapinti, the women continued their travels east, passing through Wala Wala, Ngaminya and Wirrulnga, before heading north east to Wilkinkarra [Lake Mackay].

The lines in the painting represent the surrounding tali (sand hills) in the area around Wirrulnga. A group of ancestral women once gathered at this site to perform the dance and sing the songs associated with the area. Wirrulnga is known as a traditional birthing site for the women of the area, and while the women were at Wirrulnga a woman of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection gave birth to a son who was a Tjupurrula. While at Wirrulnga the women also gathered the edible berries known as kampurarrpa or desert raisin from the small shrub Solanum centrale. These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in the coals to form a type of damper.

Doreen Reid Nakamarra 2007