PARWALLA, 2005

Important Australian Indigenous Art
Melbourne
26 March 2025
33

ELIZABETH NYUMI NUNGURRAYI

(1947 - 2019)
PARWALLA, 2005

synthetic polymer paint on linen

150.0 x 100.0 cm

bears inscription verso: artist's name, size, Warlayirti Artists cat. 941/05 and Art Mob cat. 3518/06

Estimate: 
$10,000 – $15,000
Sold for $11,045 (inc. BP) in Auction 81 - 26 March 2025, Melbourne
Provenance

Warlayirti Artists, Balgo Hills, Western Australia
Art Mob, Hobart
Private collection, Melbourne
Bonham’s, Melbourne, 22 July 2020, lot 31
Private collection, Melbourne

Catalogue text

This painting depicts the country of Elizabeth's father. This country is known for Parwalla and is located far to the south of Balgo in the Great Sandy Desert, west of the community of Kiwirrkurra. The landscape of the area is dominated by tali, or sand dunes. The Parwalla area is a swampy area, filling a huge area with water after the wet season rain. These wet season rains result in an abundance of good bush tucker. The majority of the painting shows the different bush foods, including kantjili, or bush raisin, and minyili. Women, the U shapes, with their wana (digging sticks) and coolimons (sic) are also depicted. The white colour, which dominates the painting, represents the spinifex which grows strong and seeds after the wet season rains. These seeds are white in colour, and grow so thickly they obscure the ground and other plants below.