Jackie Giles Kurltjunyintja Tjapaltjarri

Painted at Kiwirrkura in 2006 for Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Northern Territory
Estate of David Larwill

A renowned maparntjarra or traditional doctor, Kurltjunyintja Tjapaltjarri spent much of his adult life travelling the expanse of the Gibson Desert. He was a man of high ritual authority and ancestral knowledge whose paintings of country invariably related to the teachings of the apical ancestors, the Tingari. Untitled, 2006, features a labyrinthine composition that relates to designs etched into the nacre of mother-of-pearl shells. The pearl shells form part of ceremonial accoutrements worn by men. They originate in the Kimberley, in the north-western corner of the continent of Australia, and are traded along traditional exchange routes over vast distances well into the interior deserts of the country. Blank pearl shells may have designs carved into them at various points along their journeys. The designs usually relate to water in all its aspects–rain, thunderstorms, rivers and freshwater springs–and the ancestral beings, usually in the guise of serpents, associated with these phenomena.

Wally Caruana