Description
- Ink colors: red and orange
- Base cloth color: mocha
- Composition: Trapper 100% cotton drill
- Width: 148 cm (58 inches)
- Weight of base cloth: 195 gsm
- The artist is paid royalties for every metre printed.
About the artist: Kumuntjayi (Alice) Nampitjinpa Dixon (dec)
Alice was a Luritja and Pintupi artist; born in 1943 near Talaalpi: country east of Walungurru on the Western Australia / Northern Territory border. Alice is an established artist who has exhibited widely around Australia and the world. Her late father, Uta Uta Jangala, was one of the original Papunya Tula painters. Prior to painting, Alice worked for many years at the Kintore School teaching the young girls dancing and the traditions of the desert people. Alice remains an active “dancing woman” who travels widely to participate in annual ceremonies and “Women’s Law” meetings. She was a lead singer in the Sydney 2000 Olympics. Alice’s personal Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) is Tjilkamata – the porcupine. Her story is told in bright colours often utilising orange and yellow to mirror the ochres that are used in ceremonial body painting. In her Tjukurrpa story there is often the porcupine scurrying about rock holes and hiding places looking for tucker while nearby the women are themselves hunting, laying in wait for the porcupine
Art story: Rockholes at Takupalangu
This design depicts Takupalangu west of Kintore. This is Uta Uta Tjangala’s country, which he has painted throughout his career. Nampitjinpa paints her father’s country of rockholes (puli) and sandhills (tali). There is plenty bushtucker – mangilpa, which are little black seeds around. The road to Kiwirrkurra passes Takupalangu on the side.
Alice describes the big swamp of Takupalangu, in her Fathers country. Takupalangu is filled up with bush vegetables called mungilpa. When Alice was a small girl she travelled this country with her family. Her mother used to collect mungilpa and pummel it into dough which she made into damper. It is also a good place for hunting bush meat as the swamp is surrounded by rock hills.
Tjilkamata (porcupine) was Kumuntjai’s own personal Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). She returned to her country for a visit in late 2005.
Alice passed away in late 2020. She was one of the co-founders and is a great loss.
Ikuntji Artists: the first art centre established by women in the Australian Aboriginal Western Desert Art Movement. Already in the 1980s women began painting in Haasts Bluff in the aged care facility. They had been instructed by their husbands and fathers, and they had often assisted them in completing their paintings. By the early 1990s these women artists decided to pursue setting up their own art centre. Ikuntji is an Aboriginal owned, non-profit Aboriginal Corporation.
Printed by:
Publisher Textiles & Papers in Sydney is one of Australia’s leading print houses. Focused on producing original patterns through traditional hand-screen printing methods they create bold and colourful textiles, hand printed wallpaper, clothing and fabric. www.publishertextiles.com.au
Fabric care instructions:
Gentle cold/ warm hand wash. Do not bleach, warm rinse well, do not tumble dry, cool iron only, dry cleanable (P).
