Pauline Sunfly Nangala
47 1/4 x 23 5/8 in
Pauline Sunfly was born in 1957 at the old Balgo Mission hospital. She is the daughter of famous Balgo painters, Sunfly Tjampitjin and Bai Bai Napangarti. She remembers her early years at the mission where she worked in the kitchen and the laundry and helped to clear the grounds. She has spent some time in Fitzroy Crossing and has visited Broome and Alice Springs, but otherwise has remained in Balgo with her young family. She has been included in many exhibitions in leading galleries. Her work is in a number of major public collections and she is held in high regard as a talented mid generation artist. Pauline inherited many Tjukurrpa (Dreamtime) stories from her parents and she learned to paint from years of watching her father. She is an extremely dedicated and talented painter who boldly recreates many significant stories with technical precision. Her paintings are graphic and powerful. In this work she records the story for some of her father's country. Pauline's father, Sunfly Tjampitjin, was a senior custodian for country south of Balgo, and the country depicted here, Kutjupa, is an important law site north of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay) – a vast salt lake. The painting depicts a ceremony which in this area is centred around the goanna. The ceremony and body painting associated with this country is no longer practiced, having died with the Pauline's father and grandfather. The lower circles in the painting are Yululu warniri (rock holes)