Christine Napanangka Michaels

This painting is of the Majardi Jukurrpa (hair-string belt or tassel Dreaming). Majardi is a belt or pubic tassel made of ‘purdurru’ (spun hair or fur) worn during traditional ceremonies. Human hair (and sometimes the fur from wallabies or possums) is rolled on the thigh and then spun using a ‘wirinkirri’ (stick spindle). The string is then incorporated into a skirt or pubic tassel that is worn by men or women while dancing during ceremonies. In the time of the Jukurrpa, ancestral hero women of the Napangardi and Napanangka kinship subsections were living at Mina-Mina, a site of great religious significance far to the west of Yuendumu. The women travelled over their country performing ceremonies and dances wearing their ‘majardi’. This Dreaming belongs to the women of the Napangardi/Napanangka subsections and to their classificatory brothers, the Japangardi/Japanangka men.