Women's Ceremoniesby Mary Brown Napangardi

Mary Brown Napangardi was born in approximately 1953 and comes from a bush camp at Mandarine, south-west of Yuendumu in Central Australia. She is a Warlpiri woman. As a young girl she lived a traditional lifestyle learning about gathering bush tucker, bush medicine, craft and bead work for traditional ceremonies as well as learning the important cultural knowledge and Dreaming stories of her country. Whilst she was still relatively young her family was picked up by a white man and relocated to Yuendumu Community, an Aboriginal settlement approximately 3 hours from Alice Springs.

She “grew up” at Yuendumu and met her husband Mick “Pegleg” Brown Tjampitjinpa (who sadly passed away) a fellow artist there. They later relocated to Mount Liebig and then onto Nyirripi Community.

She later remarried Ronnie Tjampitjinpa a celebrated and talented Western Desert artist and together they have three sons who live in Yuendumu.

Mary first began painting in the early 1990’s at first sporadically as there was no art centre where she lived. In 2005 she began painting for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Yuendumu and since that time has began painting with much more frequency. Her artworks consist of themes and scenes associated with women’s ceremonies and her Jukurrpa (Dreaming stories) relate to her land, its features, and flora and fauna. These sacred and important stories have been passed down to her from her father’s side for generations. She uses traditional iconography and symbols within her artwork and uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her Dreamings.

Several of Mary’s family members are also successful artists including her sisters Jeannie Napangardi Lewis, Margaret Napangardi Brown, Margaret Napangardi Turner, and her niece Joy Nangala Brown.

Central Art first met Mary back in 2007 and we have featured three of her artworks on our website with one still available. All the artworks depict “Women’s Ceremonies” whereby Mary has narrated through her illustrations the travelling stories of the Tingari women who would perform rituals at particular sacred ceremonial sites. These sites are surrounded by expansive sand hills and rock holes which contain water and bush tucker. An integral part of these ceremonies is the body paint, song lines and dance cycles that are performed.

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