Copyright Judith Nangala Crispin

Agnes Napananka Donelly is a Warlpiri law woman. She was born in Yuendumu in the 50’s and now lives in Lajamanu community in the Northern Tanami Desert. Agnes is a kurdungurlu, traditional custodian, of the songlines that pass through Mina Mina—the most important women’s ceremonial site in the Australian desert.  She is one of a very small number of Warlpiri women who have ever visited Mina Mina, due to its extremely remote and secret location West of Urluru. Agnes paints the story of Dreamtime women who walked South-West from Yuendumu into the Great Sandy Desert toward three chained salt lakes near Lake MacKay. As they walked, ceremonial dancing sticks came up out of the ground and they took them. Wherever the women dropped the dancing sticks rivers appeared in the desert. Returning to Yuendumu, the women gave half the dancing sticks to the men. The dancing sticks are a symbol of women’s power and the sharing of traditional law between men and women. In many paintings of Mina Mina Jukurrpa, you will see emblems of dancing including dancing sticks and important plants that are endemic to that region.

As a Napanangka skin-named woman, Agnes also paints the Jukurrpa stories of Bush Tomato and Bush Banana. These paintings affirm her connection to Country and kin, and help ensure the increase of those important bush foods. Like all Warlpiri painters, Agnes paints Kuruwarri, the patterns in the land that manifest through people— the way the wind shapes the desert into undulating dunes, or the movement of clouds. All art, for Agnes, is the Country speaking through her. This is the meaning of Kuruwarri, a concept that i