Maudie Napanangka Nelson

This finely executed dot painting shows the honey ant dreaming of the Warlpiri people. The central concentric circles show the ant nest or entry hole. The diagonal elements show their underground tunnels. The Aboriginal women dig down to these tunnels with their digging sticks and collect the honey ants. They are a prized delicacy. The women are shown as the U shapes. The straight line alongside is the digging stick and the oval shape is the coolamon or wooden bowl. The painting also speakes about the ancestral honey ant people who in the Dreamtime created the landscape around Maudie’s country.