Artist: Katjarra Butler
Size: 76.5cm x 101cm acrylic on canvas
Biography
Written by Elizabeth Marrkilyi (Katjarra's neice). Katjarra was born quite close to Kulkurta and Purrungu at a place called Kuun. Kunn is the name of the waterhole there. Kunn is also the name of the yellow ochre.There is also a place very close to Kuun that Katjarra refers to as her home and is one of her Tjukurrpa or dreaming which she paints. It is called Kuurmankutja. This place is home to the two Kuniya (python) dreaming. The other dreaming that she paints is Marrapirnti.Her father was Lilyiwara Tjungurrayi and her mother was Mangkatji Nangala. Katjarra had an older sister Nguya Napaltjarri and younger brother Peter Tjanpaltjarri, now both deceased. Katjarra lived with her parents, siblings and immediate family in the bush as a child, teenager and young married woman. She lived with her family and later her husband in the country west of Tjukurla in the Kulkurta area which is south of the Baron Range in Western Australia. Katjarra lived a traditional nomadic lifestyle only, travelling families within their family's country and lived off animals that they hunted and bush food that they collected. They collected and drank water from the rockholes, soakages, springs and claypans (waterholes). All the travelling was done on foot.
Story from the certificate of authenticity:
These waterholes are of Ngamurru. Ngamurru is my home. It is not like a spring - the waterhole dries out after a while. At these waterholes, many women were staying here for a short while in the creation time (Dreamtime). These women were Nangala, my mother's. Another group of women, a group of Nungurrayi and Nangala were travelling to Marrpirnti/Kiwirrkura while the Nangala women were at Ngamurru. At Ngamurru the Nangala women collected ,cooked and ate the bush tucker wanpurru that grows on sandhills. They then set off to the east to Papun and Ngartan.
