Sandhills and Kanakurlangu (2007)
In this tightly packed linear work of white against black, Dorothy depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known as Mina Mina, the artist’s custodial country, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami Desert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. This site is made up of two enormous soakage areas and endless sandhills, it is here Dorothy and her aunts (Napanangkas) perform rituals of dance and song as part of their passing on of Jukurrpa.
The strong central movement through the canvas, flanked by lines feeding in and out of this flow, tells the story of the Jukurrpa (the creation era referred to as the Dreaming), ancestral women of the Napangardi and Napanangka sub-section groups (aunt / niece relationship, in which knowledge is passed from one to the other) gathered to collect ceremonial digging sticks (kana or karlangu) that had emerged from the ground. They then proceeded eastward, performing rituals of song and dance, to the place known as Jankinyi. A large stand of Desert Oaks (Allocasuarina decaisneana) now grow where these digging sticks had emerged from the ground.
The sweep of the canvas allude to the seemingly endless terrain that make up this region, around the soakages of Mina Mina; where crustations form when rainwater recedes; through the spinifex clumps and over the sand hills.
Dorothy Napangardi working on "Sandhills and Kanakurlangu"
One of the leading artists of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement, Napangardi’s work is highly sought after by both collectors and curators worldwide. Her paintings and prints have been widely exhibited and are in all national collections within Australia and in major collections worldwide including most recently the MET, New York. Napangardi had the honour of being the 2nd indigenous artist to be given a solo survey exhibition at the MCA (Museum of Contemporary Art), Sydney that traced 11 years of her painting career in 1991.