What is Mina Mina Dreaming?
Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming) is an important Warlpiri women's Dreaming. It centres on Mina Mina, a site far to the west of Yuendumu near Lake Mackay, close to the Western Australian border.
The Story
In the Dreaming, ancestral women danced at Mina Mina, and digging sticks (karlangu) rose up out of the ground. The women gathered the digging sticks and set out travelling east, dancing, digging for bush foods and creating places as they went.
Along the way the women split into two groups, one continuing east and the other heading north. In time both groups grew homesick for their country in the west and returned to Mina Mina. The custodians of the story are Napangardi and Napanangka women and Japangardi and Japanangka men.
What the Paintings Show
Artists paint the story in many ways, often including the digging sticks, the journeys of the women and the country around Mina Mina, with its salt lakes, claypans and sand dunes. Ngalyipi (snake vine), which grows through this country, is painted as a related story.
Mina Mina Artists at Art by Farquhar
Alice Granites Napanangka, from Yuendumu, paints Mina Mina as her main subject, alongside Sand Dunes, Snake Vine and Pirlala (Bush Bean) Dreamings. Her work is neat and finely detailed, with considered palettes that include neutral and black and white works.
Valda Napangardi Granites is a Warlpiri artist from Yuendumu who paints Mina Mina Jukurrpa and Ngalyipi. Her recent works explore a spare black and white palette.
Both artists paint directly for Art by Farquhar.
To learn more about Dreaming stories, read our guide to the Dreaming.
Browse Mina Mina paintings in our Alice Granites Napanangka and Valda Napangardi Granites collections.
Art by Farquhar is a member of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia.