Joyce Nyurapayia McLean

An important cultural maintenance project was undertaken in mid 2006 to mark the development of Warakurna Community’s new arts enterprise ‘Warakurna Artists’. The project involved a number of trips to sites of significance for Warakurna artists within the Ngaanyatjarra region. The family trips enhanced artists’ connection to country, provided an opportunity for intergenerational learning and enabled appropriate documentation of Tjukurrpa stories. The cohesive series of paintings generated through the project have formed a valuable collection.This painting depicts an important story about Minyma Kutjarra and their husband Ngirntaka wati. The two ladies stopped at Tjutjuranyara rockhole (Circus waters), they were collecting kampurarrpa and singing. They travelled around country and went through Irriya. They were calling for their husband everywhere but coundn’t find him anywhere. They didn’t know that the Parrot men had killed and were eating him! When they found the Parrot men they saw their husbands tail. The Parrot men then threw them some of the meat. The two women cried for their husband. They are finished now, they must have transformed in to something?