Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula: Kalipinypa 2019

This painting depicts Water Dreaming at Kalipinypa, a sacred site north-east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore, Northern Territory. The painting tells the story of the rain and hail making ceremony for the site of Kalipinypa. Ancestral forces are invoked to bring on a powerful storm with lightning, thunderclouds and rain, which sends a deluge to rejuvenate the earth, filling the rock holes, clay pans and creeks and creating new life and growth upon the land.

Today the Nakamarra, Tjakamarra, Napurrula and Tjupurrula men and women are the custodians of this important Water Dreaming site and celebrate its stories in the ceremonies. The forms created by the repetition of lines represent the sandhills making waves across the desert, but Charlotte says they are also symbolic of water courses and ceremonial body paint.