Warlukirritji was held by Linda’s beloved adoptive father, Shorty Lungkata Tjungarrayi, one of the famed original Papunya Artists. He was born at this site, just south of Karrkurutinyja [Lake McDonald], which straddles the Northern Territory and Western Australia borders. Roundels represent impermanent claypans and rockholes beyond Warlukirritji’s central rockhole, lines represent the ephemeral creeks that link them all. The central rockhole of Warlukirritji is hidden beneath small Puli [rock outcrops] forever protected by Wanampi [Rainbow Serpents] Tjungarrayi and their Nangala wives. Warlukirritji is an ancient place of importance and a place for rain making ceremonies. In this painting Wentja honours her beloved father, his Law, and his Country.
Warlukirritji is a part of the Tingarri Song and Ceremonial cycles, traversing vast deserts, and embedding Warlukirritji in a much broader web of Law, interconnecting people, species and places. Tingarri Ancestors, human/animal, male/female, interact, live, love and die, transgress, transform, fight, and give succour, perform ceremonies, and create geophysical and geographical site features. Tingarri also modify previously isolated sites, reviving and extending more ancient and localised traditions, as occurs at Warlukirritji. Tingarri oral narratives stretch to thousands of verses, broken into different sections, held by different people, at different sites. They provide countless topographical details that assist in navigation and survival. Law enshrined in song cycles, connecting these diverse linguistic/cultural groups across vast distances. Public versions disclose no secret sacred knowledge, and Tingarri-related visual designs are usually considered dear to Pintupi families, rather than dangerous. Warlukirritji is part of one of three major Tingarri journey/song lines that traverse the Country and travels from near Walungurru [Kintore], doubling back to Karrkurutinyja and then to Ikuntji [Haasts Bluff].