Wala Wala by Bambatu Napangardi
| Artist: | Bambatu Napangardi |
| Title: | Wala Wala |
| Medium: | Acrylic on canvas |
| Size: | 60 X 60cm |
| Code: | 0734 |
BAMBATU NAPANGARDI
Bombatu Napangardi was born in the early 1940’s in Winron, Pintupi country across the Western Australian border east of Kiwirrkura. She grew up in the bush living a traditional life with her family. Bombatu’s parents died when she was quite young and the responsibility for her upbringing was handed on to the well known artists Yala Yala Gibbs and Ningurra Gibson Naparrula. Thus she was exposed to painting from a very early age. Bombatu spends most of her time living in Kiwirrkura, although she occasionally travels to live and paint in Kintore for short periods.
Bombatu is the widow of the well known Papunya Tula artist Dini Campbell Tjampitjinpa. Bombatu had been apprenticed to Dinni for many years before his death in 2000 and since then she has carried on the family painting traditions. She started recording her own dreamtime stories passed on by her parents and also the stories of her famous husband.
WALA WALA
This painting depicts designs associated with the rock-hole site of Ngaminya, just to the south-west of Kiwirrkura Community in Western Australia. The lines in this painting represent the rocky outcrops and sand hills surrounding the area. In ancestral times a group of women camped at this site after travelling from the rock-hole site Marrapinti in the west.
While in the area they collected the edible berries known as Kampurarrpa or desert raisin. These berries can be eaten straight from the bush but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked in coals to make a type of damper.
Digital Finery.