Fine Art Gallery

Tjala Aboriginal Art, Sydney, NSW

Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney, NSW StoryThis painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site of Umari, situated in sandhill country, east of Mt. Webb in Western Australia. The lines through the centre of the work represent the sandhills surrounding the site. A group of women gathered at the site to perform ceremonies. The women, one of the Nangala kinship subsection and the others of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection, later travelled towards the east. One of the mythologies associated with the area concerns a relationship between a man of the Tjakamarra kinship subsection and a woman of the Nangala kinship subsection. This is a mother-in-law relationship which is very taboo in Aboriginal culture.