This work depicts Kunawarritji (Well 33), which is located along the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route in Western Australia. Kunawarritji is an important rockhole near the artist’s birthplace which is associated with a number of tjukurrpa (ancestral stories), including the Seven Sisters Dreaming. The sweeping contours of the work represent tali (sandhills) that dominate the topography of this important water source. This is good country for collecting pura (bush tomato) and kantjilyi (bush raisin). The circular shapes indicate rockholes, places of living water that punctuate the desert.
Nora Wompi
Manyjilyjarra c. 1935 – 2017
Kunawarritji 2007
synthetic polymer paint on canvas
180.2 x 120.5 cm
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Purchased, NGV Supporters and Patrons of Indigenous Art, 2007
© Nora Wompi/Licensed by Copyright Agency, Australia
