Mina Mina Jukurrpaby Catherine Nungarrayi Malbunka

The Mina Mina Jukurrpa tells the story of a group of ancestral 'Karnta' (women) who travelled from the west to the east. In the Dream-time, these ancestral women danced at the Mina Mina and 'Karlangu' (digging sticks) rose up out of the ground. They collected these digging sticks and started travelling to the east. They carried their digging sticks over their shoulders and they were adorned with 'majardi' (hair-string belts), white feathers, and necklaces made from 'yinirnti' (bean tree) seeds. They continuously anointed themselves with 'minyira' (shiny fat) to increase their ritual powers as they went along. As the women travelled, they were followed by a 'yinkardakurdaku' (spotted nightjar) from the Jakamarra subsection. The bird would call out and then hide in the bushes behind them as they travelled.

Artist:Catherine Nungarrayi Malbunka
Title:Mina Mina Jukurrpa
ID:4984/21
Medium:Acrylic on Canvas
Size:61 x 46 cm
Region:Yuendumu, Central Australia

Artist

Catherine Nungarrayi Malbunka was born in Papunya, a remote Aboriginal community located roughly 240 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. When she was young she attended the local school in Papunya and later went to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. When she finished school she held a number of jobs including working in the local store, helping out at the local school and working for the Women’s Centre, a group of volunteers who assist other organisations in the community. She moved to Yuendumu when she married Kipper Jupurrurla Ross and they have three children, Bradley, Charmaine and Malcolm.

Catherine has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2005. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and his father’s father before him for millennia. “I like to paint; I love the colours and my dreamings”. When she is not painting she likes to go hunting for bush tucker and for witchetty grubs.

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