Makinti Napanangka
WINNER of 25th Telstra NATSIAA AWARD
On 15 August 2008, Makinti was announced as the winner of the 2008 Telstra Award, Australia's most prestigous award for indigenous art.
Aboriginal Art World had been fortunate enough to commission a significant body of Makinti Napanangka's works in months leading up to the Awards. Please take the time to peruse this important collection below.
Makinti Napanangka was born c. 1930 at Lupulnga rockhole in the Karrkurritinytja (Lake Macdonald) area. Makinti's first contact with white man came when her family met men on camels tracking through the bush near Lupulnga. She and her husband walked out of the "bush" and moved to Haasts Bluff in the 1960s.
Makinti started painting in 1993/94 for the Kintore and Haasts Bluff Project and has been painting consistently since around 1996. The majority of Makinti's works are representations of the travels of the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Women) ancestors and typically entail blends of earthy colours, creams and yellows, sometimes with adventurous and simplistic multi-coloured highlights. You can often find representations of hair string belts or skirts (sweeping strokes or lines) worn during ceremonies and soakage sites and rock holes (circles) from important Dreaming routes through her country. Other times her circles will represent the Western Quoll or Kuningka, a small marsupial predator which lives in holes dug by itself or others.
Makinti is regarded as an important, senior law woman within her community and an eminently collectable artist outside it. In 2003, she received the accolade of being included in Australia's Top 50 most collectable artists by Australian Art Collector magazine. She appears in major collections worldwide. Makinti Napanangka spends her time between Alice Springs and her home in Kintore. Makinti's daughter, Narrabri Nakamarra is also a respected artist in her own right.
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