What is the Tingari?
The Tingari are ancestral beings of the Western Desert. Tingari stories and songlines tell of their travels across vast areas of country.
The Story
In the versions that are told publicly, the Tingari were a group of ancestral men, often accompanied by young novices, who travelled widely across the Western Desert. Along the way they performed ceremonies, instructed the novices in law and created sites in the landscape. Tingari women also appear in some versions. The Tingari cycle is associated with the Pintupi and neighbouring Western Desert peoples.
Restricted Knowledge
Much of the Tingari is restricted men's knowledge and is not shared publicly. Its full meaning is held by senior initiated men, and it is not something we can, or should, explain here. Paintings made for public display show only what the artist chooses to share, with sacred details left out or changed, so the specific meaning of a Tingari painting is not usually given.
The Paintings
Classic Tingari paintings show a network of roundels, concentric circles or in some artists' work concentric squares, linked by lines. The roundels usually represent sites, and the lines the travels between them. Tingari subjects have been painted by Pintupi artists since the early years of the Western Desert painting movement at Papunya in the 1970s.
Tingari Artists at Art by Farquhar
The late Thomas Tjapaltjarri and his half-brother, the late Walala Tjapaltjarri, were Pintupi men whose family lived a traditional life in the Gibson Desert until first contact with outsiders in 1984, after which they settled at Kiwirrkurra. Both began painting in 1987. Their Tingari paintings use bold, precise geometric designs.
Bob Gibson Tjungurrayi was born at Papunya in 1974 and began painting in 2007. As well as Tingari, he paints his father's country at Patjantja, near Patjarr on the edge of the Gibson Desert. His work is fast and instinctive, with swift brushwork and bold colour.
To learn more, read our guide to the Dreaming.
Browse Tingari paintings in our Walala Tjapaltjarri, Thomas Tjapaltjarri and Bob Gibson Tjungurrayi collections.
Art by Farquhar is a member of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia.