Artist : MAVIS DARKIE
Title : Minna Minna
Size/Medium : 610 x 457mm: acrylic on linen Painting
Mavis has painted some of her grandmothers (Nancy Naninurra} country located south of Balgo in the Great Sandy Desert. This country is known as Minna Minna, named for the tjurrnu (soak water) featured in the centre of the painting. This country is important women’s country and women of the Nungurrayi and Napanangka skin groups dance for this country. During the Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime) women danced around a central circle, and by their continuous dancing formed the tjurrnu at Minna Minna. As part of this ceremony the small girls go into a cave near the tjurrnu and collect red ochre and they give it to the older women involved in the ceremony. This is represented in the painting by the red circle around the rockhole.