Tatali Napurrula was born in Haasts Bluff in October 1957. She lived at Haasts Bluff, attending school until her family moved west with other Pintupi people, camping west of Papunya at Yai Yai for a short while before settling in Kintore. In 1999 she was one of Kintore women artists who painted a large collaborative work to be auctioned for the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal and since her work has been included in major exhibitions and collections.

This iconographic work of soft yellows and cream depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Pinpirri near Desert Bore, north of the Kintore Community where, during ancestral times, a group of women of Nangala, Napangati, Napurrula, Napaltjarri and Nungurrayi kinship subsections gathered at Pinpirri to perform the dances and sing to the songs associated with the area.

During these ceremonies a woman of Nungurrayi kinship subsection pierced the earth with her wana (digging stick) to create three rockholes. The women also gathered wangunu or woollybutt, from the perennial grass Eragrostis eriopoda. The husks from these seeds are removed by winnowing and the seeds are then ground into flour. Water is then added and the paste is cooked in hot coals and ashes to form a type of unleavened bread. The roundels in the painting represent rockholes at the site, as well as other sites to which the women journeyed, while the lines represent tali (sandhills) and puli (rocky outcrops).

Provenance: Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd