Womens Ceremonyby Joylene Napangarti Reid

Joylene Napangarti Reid was born in 1971 at Walungurru, an area to the west of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Joylene comes from artistic lineage, her parents are, Walangkura Napurrula and Kalara Tjapangarti. Joylene spent her childhood at Ikuntji, an Aboriginal settlement. In 1981 she relocated with her family to Tjukurla, a small community in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, before eventually permanently moving to Kintore in the Western Desert.

Joylene’s Dreamings centre on women’s business and ceremonies. The Women’s Tingari depict her country and the sacred women’s sites that are between Kintore and Kiwikurra in the Western Desert. The sacred and important ceremonies that occur at these sites tell stories of the travelling ancestors who would gather at these sites to rest, sing and dance. In her paintings she will often depict the body paint designs which are used during women’s ceremonies. These painted designs continue to play a key role in ceremonies performed today.

Joylene tends to use traditional colour schemes, using pigments and colours which can be found naturally in the desert. These can be seen in the artworks that Central Art has available. Ochre rocks would be gathered and ground down to dust, with a little water, this makes a paste used for painting either on rocks or body painting. These colours can vary from white, brown, yellow, and even red. Her sense of design and movement shows the close association between painted images and the physical landscape.

Central Art first met Joylene back in 2004 and were thrilled to see that 10 years later she was still painting. She has continued to enjoy learning and experimenting in her design. Her paintings are affordable and provide purchasers with a more traditional experience of Aboriginal art using traditional iconography and colour schemes.

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