Barbara Reid Napangarti

In painting Minyma Tingari, Barbara describes the journey of the Tingari women who, with the Tingari men, travelled vast distances across the land creating laws and rituals and shaping particular sites during the Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime).

The sacred stories and songs are the spiritual foundation on which Barbara bases her paintings. Barbara incorporates many Dreaming sites in her paintings. They include sand hills, rock holes, water soakages and land forms found throughout her country. It is at these sacred sites that the women narrated their Dreamtime stories through song lines, dance cycles and body paint. Barbara employs the creamy thick textures that have an appealing tactile quality. They do, after all, represent the earth where everything begins and ends. The traditional painters such as Barbara are very conscious of the 'skin' of the earth. It is an interesting exercise to watch her paint as Barbara has mastered the flow and juddering, joined dotted line, which is also characteristic of other painters from the Balgo area. Her brush marks track ancient journeys along 'dreaming' trails which are called song lines at times.