Deutscher and Hackett

The accompanying certificate from Papunya Tula artists describes the painting as representing Wirrulnga a small rocky outcrop site east of Kiwirrkura in Western Australia depicted as the large central roundel. The crescent shapes represent a group of Napaltjarri and Napurrula ancestor women who camped there. Wirrulnga is associated with birth and fertility and the lines adjacent to the central roundel symbolize the extended belly of a pregnant Napaltjarri woman who gave birth at this site. Here, women created ceremonial hairstring skirts to wear during ceremonies, represented by the comb–like forms. The smaller roundels represent the berries collected by the women as they travelled north east on to Wilkinkarra.

Ningura Napurrula was born at Watulka, south of Kiwirrkura Community. She was the wife of the renowned Pintupi artist, the late YalaYala Gibbs Tjiungurrayi. Napurrula first painted in 1995 during the second year of the Haasts Bluff/Kintore Women's Painting Camp. She produced her first canvas in 1996 and today her work is held in private, institutional and corporate collections both in Australia and internationally. In 2004 she was selected as one of only eight Aboriginal artists to have her work included within the architectural design of the Museé du quai Branly, Paris.