Women’s Dreaming

This dreaming tells about women’s ceremony. It affirms womens place in Warlpiri society.  The Dreaming story marks large tracks of land of which women are guardian over.  Particular men are workers for the women. They are called kurdungurlu.  This works in reverse as well, where the particular women work for particular men. Only the women know this dreaming. It talks about travelling from north to south, west to east into the new sun signifying a new day and new life.  They teaching all the young kids. They all teach people from different skin groups, so that the dreamings are passed along to the young children.  In this art work the ladies have built wind breaks – the big arches.  The women are sheltering.

$1,120.00

1 in stock

Medium: Painting
1200 x 900mm Acrylic on Canvas
Year: 2019
SKU: 208-19

Description

This dreaming tells about women’s ceremony. It affirms womens place in Warlpiri society.  The Dreaming story marks large tracks of land of which women are guardian over.  Particular men are workers for the women. They are called kurdungurlu.  This works in reverse as well, where the particular women work for particular men. Only the women know this dreaming. It talks about travelling from north to south, west to east into the new sun signifying a new day and new life.  They teaching all the young kids. They all teach people from different skin groups, so that the dreamings are passed along to the young children.  In this art work the ladies have built wind breaks – the big arches.  The women are sheltering.

Additional information

Weight 0.8 kg

About Elizabeth Nungarrayi Ross

Nungarrayi worked at the school for many years in the bilingual education program, developing resources for teaching Warlpiri. She loved to learn and took higher education studies at Batchelor College over the years. Her culture was important to her and Nungarrayi really understood so much about it. She painted when she had spare time, then later after retirement spent a lot more time at the art centre painting.  Nungarrayi did ceremony and song all her life as well as teaching children.  She was a committed member of her church and Kurdiji Law Group. Her art was bold in dots depicting Jukurrpa or in lines again of Jukurrpa .  Another favourite subject of her art was birds including the spinifex pigeon. Her favourite past time in retirement was painting and updating an anthropology database Warlpiri can access.  All the staff at the art centre miss her after she passed away in 2020.

See other works from Elizabeth Nungarrayi Ross