Nola Campbell Yurnangurnu

This painting is a representation of the three diverse and significant dreaming sites across Patjarr, in the Gibson Desert, referencing and paying homage to Nola's experience of these sites as she walked between them as a young girl with her family. One of those special places is Mina Mina, a sacred site full of bird life and claypans. Another referenced in this painting is Tika Tika. The Tika Tika rockholes are south of Patjarr, and there are eight rockholes there. They were made by Ngirntaka the perenti goanna ancestor who travelled from the west to Warburton. He was digging around hunting for tirnka (sand goanna) for food. He found two tirnka to eat. He stopped one night and kept going in the morning. People were camping at Tika Tika before Patjarr community was developed. Nola lived there as a young girl and walked around with her uncles and aunties, hunting and learning. They often walked from Yalara rockholes to Tika Tika carrying water in a wooden dish called a kilpi. The third site is Yunpalara (Lake Blair), a large lake bed west of Patjarr. It is more often dry than not, relying on rainfall to fill it. After rain the lake is home to many water birds. The surface cracks as it dries. Ngirntaka (the perentie goanna) travelling from Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route came through this area and made Yunpalara on his way with a large sweep of his tail. This work is significant as it serves as documentation of three sacred sites in the vast landscape of the Gibson Desert, culturally rich and powerful places for the Patjarr people, immortalising and maintaining them in the living memory for many more years to come.