Bambatu Kungka 19-469

Bambatu paints womens stories and the journey paths travelled by her ancestors from Wirrulunga (east of Kiwirrkurra), from Kintore to Mount Liebig and the Papunya region. At each sacred location the women would stop to dance and sing the cycle of each sacred site. In her paintings the concentric circles represent waterholes and the parallel dotted lines represent the paths taken along the Tali (sandhills) an important feature of these landscapes. Bambatu’s line work and dotting techniques also reflect the body paint designs used by the Central and Western Desert peoples.

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Bambatu was born in Pintupi country at a place called Winrun, west of Kiwirrkurra, WA. She grew up out bush with her family living in the traditional way of life before her extended family went to join the Papunya Community in the mid 1960s. As a young woman Bambatu met her husband, Dinni Campbell Tjampitjinpa in Balgo WA. They married in Balgo and had six children together, four sons and two daughters. Bombatu Napangardi spent many years watching the old men of the Papunya movement paint and was then an apprentice to her husband Dinni for many years. She was taught stories and techniques from her mothers family and started painting herself, focusing on Women's stories from the Kintore and Papunya region.