Barbara Napangarti Reid
Barbara Napangarti Reid was born in approximately 1964 at Mungurry, near Tjukurla, north west of Docker River in Western Australia. She belongs to the Ngaanyatjarra language group of the Western Desert, one of eight language groups who act as custodians for this vast area. While Barbara’s family are predominantly Ngaanyatjarra, she has, from her father’s mother’s side, a strong Pintupi connection, with the noted artist Kai Kai Nampintjinpa being her father’s mother’s young sister.
Date of Birth
Place of Birth
Significant Country
Language
c 1964
Mungurry, WA
Gibson Dessert
Ngaanyatjarra
Sandhills and Bush Apples (2000)
Region: Western Desert
Medium/Type: Painting
Size: 192 x 122 cm
(Artwork can be rotated)
Titled Sandhills and Bush Apples, Barbara depicts the landscape: puli or rock formations, represented here by the stratified, elongated U shapes; and tali – the waving lines depicting the sweeping sand dunes; and bush apples that are plentiful in season here.
This traditional method of representing geographic formations through the use of stratified lines also has its roots in the body paint worn by women during sacred ceremonies.
These ceremonies represent aspects of the secret and sacred Tingari Cycle, from the Tjukurrpa (Creation Era). It represents a spiritual amalgam that incorporates story, song and ceremony. It narrates the stories of the Tingari ancestors who travelled vast stretches of the country performing rituals, which in turn brought into being the land formations of particular sites. The site here is the artist’s custodian site, Tjukurla, in the Gibson Desert, Western Australia.
Minyma Tingari (Women's Dreaming), 2000
Region: Western Desert
Medium/Type: Painting
Size: 198 x 122 cm
Titled Minyma Tingari (Women’s Dreaming), this painting represents aspects of the secret and sacred Tingari Cycle, from the Tjukurrpa (Creation Era). It represents a spiritual amalgam that incorporates story, song and ceremony. It narrates the stories of the Tingari ancestors who travelled vast stretches of the country performing rituals, which in turn brought into being the land formations of particular sites. The site here is the artist’s custodian site, Tjukurla, in the Gibson Desert, Western Australia.
Barbara depicts the Tingari women gathered together for ceremony – represented by the U shapes – as they work within their country, gathering pintalypa or bush apples, and erecting wind breaks. The long shapes are the women’s dancing boards. Before the ceremony the women paint up, they paint their breasts and their dancing boards with symbols that relate to the dreaming. During the ceremony the women hold the painted boards and dance with them. The long comb like arc shapes are their hair string belts used in ceremony.
Kuniya Snake Dreaming (2000)
Region: Western Desert
Medium/Type: Painting
Size: 92 x 92 cm
Kuniya in the Western Desert language describes a “carpet snake” (Morelia spilota) found in the sandy desert country.
This beautiful work by Barbara Reid, Kuniya Snake Dreaming is a creation story that come from a network of Snake Dreaming that stretch hundreds of kilometres through Central Australia into Western Australia. Kuniya Snake Dreaming is associated with Tjukurla, Gibson Desert. The story is about a non-venomous Kuniya woman and her nephew and their battle with a poisonous western brown snake. In the battle they are transformed into wanampi (rainbow snake/water snake).