Mina Mina Jukurrpa relates to a major Women’s Dreaming site that is sacred to Warlpiri women of the Napangardi and Napanangka skin groups. Mina Mina is located well to the west of Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert, in country that features and is dominated by salt lakes, claypan soakages and sandhills.
The Dreaming describes the journey of a group of women of all ages who travelled east gathering food, collecting Ngalyipi (Tinospora smilacina or Snake Vine) and performing ceremonies as they travelled. The women began their journey at Mina Mina where Karlangu (digging sticks) emerged from the ground. Taking these implements the women travelled east creating Janyinki and other sites. Their journey took them eventually beyond Warlpiri country.
Dororthy Napangardi painted the country associated with the Mina Mina site – the surface of the salt lake country and sometimes the surrounding sandhill patterns. She also shows aspects of the travels of Ancestral Women as they danced their way across country and encountered other Dreamings. The artist’s fine white dot-markings convey the movement of women, and also refer to elements of the surrounding landscape.
