About this artwork
Korrmankuntja directly means ‘thunder is happening there’, though for the country and the actions of the Tjukurrpa creation, more accurately known as ‘a place of thunder’.
This place is very important for Katjarra. She was born at this very site and received her Tjukurrpa here. She has the strongest connection to this place though Pintupi/Ngaanyatjarra customs. At Korrmankuntja, when Katjarra’s mother was pregnant with her, a python (Kuniya) appeared in front of her. Katjarra’s mother killed the snake, and Kuniya became Katjarra. Katjarra’s mother believed that that very python was symbolic of the dreaming python from this area.
Kuniya, the creation python, travelled to Korrmankuntja, where the thunder instructed Kuniya to continue onwards to Patjantja, but with a warning.
About Katjarra Butler
Written by Elizabeth Marrkilyi (Katjarra’s niece): Katjarra was born quite close to Kulkurta and Purrungu at a place called Kuun. Kuun is the name of the waterhole there. Kuun is also the name of the yellow ochre. There is also a place very close to Kuun that Katjarra refers to as her home and is one of her Tjukurrpa or dreaming which she paints. It is called Kuurmankutja. This place is home to the two Kuniya (python) dreaming. The other dreaming that she paints is Marrapirnti. Her father was Lilyiwara Tjungurrayi and her mother was Mangkatji Nangala. Katjarra had an older sister Nguya Napaltjarri and younger brother Peter Tjanpaltjarri, now both deceased. Katjarra lived with her parents, siblings and immediate family in the bush as a child, teenager and young married woman. She lived with her family and later with her husband in the country to the west of Tjukurla in the Kulkurta area which is south of the Baron Range in Western Australia. Katjarra lived a traditional nomadic lifestyle only, travelling families within their family’s country and lived off the animals that they hunted and bush food that they collected. They collected and drank water from the rockholes, soakages, springs and claypans (waterholes). All the travelling was done on foot. AWARDS (selected) 2021 - Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, Finalist 2021 - Wynne Prize (Art Gallery of NSW), Finalist 2018 - Alice Art Prize, Finalist 2018 - Port Headland Art Prize, Finalist 2018 - Albany Art Prize, Finalist 2017 - Port Hedland Art Award, Finalist 2016 - Wyndham Art Prize, Winner
