Katjarra Butler

Wingantjirri

2023

CAT
22-832
Acrylic on canvas
121.5
146
121.5
cm
Dimensions variable

Framed

7750
Or
for set of
On hold
SOLD
Not for sale
Price on request

Wingantjirri is where Katjarra gave birth to her first daughter. This site holds an important story for Katjarra. When Katjarra was expecting a child, she was nearby Wingantjirri with a group of women, all of her older sisters. They were gathering ghost gum leaves for their sap. This sap has a sweet taste and was gathered and eaten- it’s called yaparril.

While they were gathering yaparril a big and destructive whirly wind, like a small tornado, came through from the North, travelling South. The wind was so powerful it caused trees to snap in half, and limbs torn from the trunks in its wake. Katjarra and her sisters quickly took cover in the near mulga forest. The wind followed them to the mulga forest and then suddenly vanished. Katjarra explains that her and her sister in-law had seen a spirit child appeared when the wind stopped. They remember saying ‘look, that child is following us!' The child followed the women all the way back to Wingantjirri. When they arrived, the child vanished. The child was Katjarra’s daughter as a Tjukurrpa, and she now identifies with the walpa (whirlwind).

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