NMA collection record

'Yumari' by Uta Uta (Wuta Wuta) Tjangala, 1976


This acrylic painting is the story of Yumari, which is part of the Tingarri body of Dreamings and depicts the travels of an ancestral man. The man wears a pubic cover and carries hair-string bundles for ceremonies. The snaking line is his travelling route, and the large concentric circles are the sites he visits along the way: Lirlpamirramirra (in mulyarti or spear-wood country), Nyuntuna (a cave site) and Yumari. At each site he is shown resting, spread-eagled on his back. At Yumari he collects wanakitji, a form of bush tucker, to feed both himself and his female companion. The painting is by Uta Uta (Wuta Wuta) Tjangala and measures 1,700 mm x 3,390 mm. This resource includes a line diagram illustrating the symbols used in the painting and a map showing sites of significance.

Educational value

Uta Uta (Wuta Wuta) Tjangala (c1926-1990) was one of the original group of Papunya artists and an inspirational figure in the Papunya art movement, painting continuously until the late 1980s. He came from the Pintupi language group and was conceived at the site of Ngurrapalangu in the Kiwirrkura area of the Gibson Desert. Through this he was connected to the Yina (Old Man) Dreaming story, which runs from Ngurrapalangu and through Yumari. In the late 1970s he, together with other Pintupi leaders, developed and executed a plan for returning to their traditional lands.




