Kelly Napanangka Michaels

This dreaming comes from Mina Mina, a very important women’s dreaming site far to the west of Yuendumu near Lake Mackay and the WA boarder. The area is sacred to the Napangardi and Napanangka women. There are a number of water soakages and clay pans at Mina Mina. In the dreamtime ancestral women danced at Mina Mina and digging sticks rose up out of the ground. The women collected the digging sticks and then travelled on to the east, dancing, digging for bush tucker, collecting snake vine and creating many places as they went. Snake Vine is a rope-like creeper that grows up the trunks and limbs of trees, including desert oak. It is used as a ceremonial wrap and as a strap to carry coolamons and water carriers. It is also used to tie around the forehead to cure headaches and to bind cuts. The women stopped and dug for bush foods like desert truffle. The dreaming track eventually took them far beyond Warlpiri country. The track passed through to the east and then far to the northeast of Yuendumu and eventually on into Qld.