Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming)

Date1999

Maker Yuendumu Women's Collaborative (Biddy Napanangka Hutchinson, b. 1931; Betsy Napangardi Lewis, b. 1940; Judy Napangardi Watson, b. 1925; Rosie Nangala Flemming, b. 1930; Amanda Nangala Jurra, n.d.; Bessie Nakamarra Sims, b. 1932; and Pamela Napurrurla Walker, b. 1957) Australian Aboriginal, Warlpiri people, Yuendumu, Western Desert, Northern Territory

Label TextSeven women offer us this vision of their Mina Mina (home or living place). It is a place where ancestral women stopped to sit under desert oaks, get water, collect food and snake vines to wrap food bowls and cure headaches. As part of a commissioned painting process, the women all journeyed together to the site. Just as in mythic eras, they stopped to gather goannas, grubs, bush tobacco and fruits. Fires were lit to drive away the blue-tongued lizards that often sit under spinifex grass, and there they could roast food and sing quietly into the night. Key elements as noted in the painting’s documentation: • Long wavy lines= snake vines • U-forms= women • Concentric circles= desert oak trees • Straight lines= digging sticks • Small circles= edible fungus • IUO forms= coolamon (gathering bowls) --Pam McClusky, Curator of African and Oceanic Art, 2012

Object number2019.20.21

Provenance[Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Yuendumu, Australia]; Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan, Seattle, Washington, 2000

Photo CreditPhoto: iocolor, Seattle

Exhibition HistorySeattle, Washington, Seattle Art Museum, Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection, May 31 - Sept. 12, 2012 (Nashville, Tenessee, Frist Center for the Visual Arts, June 23 - Oct. 15, 2017; Madison, Wisconsin, Chazen Museum of Art, University of Wisconsin, Jan. 26 - Apr. 22, 2018; Austin, Texas, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas, June 3 - Sept. 9, 2018; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, Audain Art Museum, Oct. 5, 2018 - Jan. 28, 2019). Text by Pamela McClusky, Wally Caruana, Lisa Graziose Corrin, and Stephen Gilchrist. Cat. no. 45, pp. 142-143, reproduced.

Credit LineGift of Margaret Levi and Robert Kaplan

Dimensions59 1/16 x 47 1/4 in. (150 x 120 cm)

MediumSynthetic polymer paint on canvas