LISA NAPURRULA

Lisa Napurrula is a Pintupi artist.

 

This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Marrapinti, situated in a creek, west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. The lines in this work are a graphic representation of the surrounding tali (sandhills) and puli (rocky outcrops)

 

Marrapinti is a rock hole site and a place of cultural significance for the Aboriginal people. Her female ancestors stopped at this site to collect desert raisins, a vital bush food, which would grow after the rains, fruiting for a couple of months each year.

 

Whilst camped at Marrapinti Nanyuma's ancestor's would also fashion nose bones. This traditional jewellery, worn through the septum, is known as Marrapinti after the site. Indigenous Australians believe that the nose bone ancestor lives in the ground at this site and hold ceremonies for piercing the nose here.

 

These nose bones were originally used by both men and woman, today they are usually only inserted by the older generation on ceremonial occasions.