STORY - Mina Mina Walyankarna

This painting tells an important Dreaming story about a group of ancestral women who travelled from east to west. In the Dreamtime these women danced at Mina Mina. When they danced they created a huge dust cloud that swept up the 'walyankarna' (snake ancestors). They has previously tranformed themselves from witchetty grubs into snakes at Kunajarrayi (Mount Nicker) and they had stopped at Mina Mina to watch the women dance. In this way the 'ngarlkirdi Jukurrpa' (witchetty grub Dreaming) and 'karnta Jukurrpa' (womens Dreaming) intersect. This allowed the anestral women to observe the witchetty grubs and learn how to best locate and cook them, skills that are still used by Warlpiri women today.