Rosemary Porter b. 1982

Rosemary Porter Nampitjinpa was born in Adelaide in 1982, and grew up in the small Aboriginal community of Tjukurla, situated on the edge of a large salt lake near the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.

Rosemary is of both the Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjara language groups. Using the traditional dot and line work of the Western Desert style, Rosemary depicts aspects of  women’s ceremony, including both iconography of women’s body paint designs, and the topographic view of the ceremony taking place within the landscape.

Rosemary often paints the Tjilkamata Tjukurrpa (Echidna Dreaming) story that was taught to her by her grandmother, as well as Minyma Tjukurrpa (Women's Dreaming). Horizontal and vertical stripes represent the lines of traditional women’s body paint designs, and the rounded forms representing the echidna or ‘porcupine’.