Mina Mina Dreaming

Sabrina Nangala Robertson was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of the acclaimed Aboriginal artist Dorothy Napangadi. Sabrina now alternates between living in Yuendumu and Alice Springs. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2005. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa or Dreaming, stories passed down to her by her father and her father’s father before her for millennia. These stories relate to her traditional land, Pirlinyarnu (Mt Farewell), its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Sabrina has exhibited in Australia and in France.

The country associated with this Jukurrpa is Mina Mina, a place far to the west of Yuendumu, which is significant to Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men. All of them are the custodians of the Jukurrpa that created the area. The Jukurrpa story tells of the journey of a group of women of all ages who travelled to the east gathering food, collecting ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine) and performing ceremonies as they travelled.