Walala Tjapaltjarri b. c. 1960s

Walala Tjapaltjarri uses a visually minimal painting style to represent aspects of the deeply sacred Tingari Dreaming Cycle - a secret song cycle that is taught to initiated men and women of the Pintupi language group in the Western Desert. The Tingari Cycle details the journeys of the ancestors during Tjukurrpa (Dreaming, or creation era), as they moved across the earth, creating features of the landscape, and establishing law. Very little is known about the Tingari Cycle by those who are uninitiated, as the knowledge is strictly protected due to its secret nature. Walala paints aspects of the Tingari Cycle that are associated with the artist's many sacred sites, such as Wilkinkarra, Maruwa, Tarrku, Njami and Yarrawangu. These are locations of significant rockholes, sandhills, sacred mountains and water soakages in the Gibson Desert.