Born: c.1946-2018, Clutterbuck Hills region near Patjarr, Gibson Desert, Western Australia
Language: Pintupi
Known as: Janie Ward, Janie Ward Nakamara, Janey Ward Nakamara
Dreamings: Country, Women's Ceremony, Minyma Tjukurrpa (Women's Creation Stories), Wangurnu Rockholes
Janie Ward Nakamarra was a senior Pintupi woman from some of the most remote country in Australia: the sandhill and rockhole country of the Gibson Desert around Patjarr, reaching across towards Tjukurla near the Northern Territory border. Her people were among the last desert families to leave a fully traditional life, and Janie grew up knowing the land, its water and its stories firsthand.
She was the wife of Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri (c.1940-1987), a Patjarr man who painted for Papunya Tula Artists in the early years of the Western Desert art movement and was one of its original shareholders. Together they raised their family while moving between communities across the Western and Central Desert, including Papunya, Warburton, Patjarr, Docker River and Kintore, staying close to relatives spread right across that country. Their daughter Marlene Young Nungurrayi became a respected painter in her own right, and it was Janie who taught her the Tjukurrpa stories.
Janie painted alongside the artists of Patjarr through Kayili Artists, the small community art centre that opened there in 2004, and her work was shown in Melbourne in 2007. Her paintings map her country from above, marking out the rockholes, ceremonial places and the paths of the ancestral women across the sandhills. We were fortunate to meet Janie when she visited family in Alice Springs, and she brought her paintings to our family home.
DREAMINGS
Country - Janie's ancestral country in the Gibson Desert around Patjarr and the Clutterbuck Hills. It is ancient land of red sandhills, claypans, rockholes and spinifex plains. In her paintings it is seen from above, the way desert artists have always mapped the land, and each site and track holds knowledge handed down from her ancestors.
Women's Ceremony - The ceremonies held by the women on this country. Songs, dances and body designs are performed to keep the law and stories strong and to pass them on to the younger women.
Minyma Tjukurrpa (Women's Creation Stories) - Minyma means women and Tjukurrpa means the Dreaming. These are the creation stories of the ancestral women who travelled across the desert, camping, gathering bush foods and holding ceremony as they went. The places where they stopped became the landmarks and sacred sites that remain on the land today.
Wangurnu Rockholes - A rockhole site north of Patjarr. In the desert, rockholes are precious sources of water that people have relied on for thousands of years. They are also important gathering and ceremonial places, tied to the Dreaming stories of the area.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2007 Kayili Artists, William Mora Galleries, Melbourne
This painting was purchased directly from Janie and a gallery certificate of authenticity will be provided with the sale.
