Using fine dots the painting conveys the tracks of the Napangardi and Napanangka ancestral women, as they journeyed to a major ceremonial site known as the Mina Mina located near Lake MacKay, north of Yuendumu in Central Australia.

During the Jukurrpa (Dreamtime) the ancestral women gathered to collect ceremonial sticks, which emerged from the ground. The women performed rituals of song and dance to the place knows as Jankinyi. A large belt of eucalyptus trees now stands where once digging sticks stood.

Topographically, the sacred site of Mina Mina is made up of two enormous soakage areas that, rarely filled with water, exist as clay pans. As water soaks into the ground, small areas of earth dry out and lift at the edges, becoming delineated by salt.

If you would like to know more about Salt on Mina Mina and the relationship with Aboriginal Art and culture, please read the following articles:

• Aboriginal Women
• Yuendumu Aboriginal Art: Aboriginal Paintings from the Central Desert

We recommended the book, DANCING UP COUNTRY, The art of Dorothy Napangardi, published by Museum of Contemporary Art.