Tingari Cycleby Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri

This iconic artwork represent the Tingari Cycle, which in Australian Aboriginal mythology embodies a vast network of Aboriginal Dreaming (tjukurpa) song lines that traverse the Western Desert region of Central Australia. Locations and events associated with the Tingari cycle are frequently the subject of Aboriginal Art from this region. The Tingari Men were a group of ancestral elders who in the Dreaming travelled over vast areas of the Western Desert, performing rituals and creating or "opening up" the country They were usually accompanied by recently-initiated novices to whom they provided instruction in the ritual and law of the region. The adventures of the Tingari groups are enshrined in numerous song-myth cycles. Deep knowledge of Tingari business is restricted to men possessing appropriate levels of seniority in Western Desert society, but many stories have "public versions" which do not disclose secret or sacred knowledge.

Like a map this artwork depicts the journey and sites the Tingari men would have visited during the Dream-time period.