Tilau Nangala

This story relates to a place called Mikantj, an important Water Dreaming site, west of Yuendumu whose custodians are the Nangala and Nampitjimpa women and their brothers, the Tjangala and Tjampitjimpa men. The painting tells how the women preform ceremonies or inma celebrating the creation of the mikantji site by the storm ancestors. The circle in the centre represents the soakage at Mikantji and the U shapes are the women sitting around it. The dots represent the raindrops and the wavy lines are the streams of water running into the soakage. These designs are also painted on the women’s bodies during the ceremonies.