Linda Syddick Napaltjarri

Linda Syddick Napaltjarri was born in the 1930s in the Wilkinkarra Estate (Lake MacKay), the daughter of Wanala Nangala by Rintja Tjungurrayi. Linda's paintings are inspired by her traditional nomadic life in the desert, and the Dream of her father and stepfather. Linda's father was Rintje Tjungurrayi, he was killed for revenge, stabbed by a spear when Linda was eighteen months old; her stepfather, artist Lankata Shorty Tjungurrayi, subsequently raised her. On the death of her father-in-law in 1985, Linda began her work and painted thanks to her two uncles Uta Uta Tjangala and Nosepeg Tjupurrula who taught her the art of painting. Linda often paints the story of "Dreaming Tingari" and "Emeus Men". Emeus men: ancestral beings who roamed the landscape during the Period of “Dreamtime” or “creation of the world”. It was the totem pole of his father, Rintje Tjungurrayi and stepfather, Lungkata Shorty Tjungurrayi. The Tingari were ancestral spiritual beings, very great nomads who crossed very many landscapes. Linda paints the desert landscape of Central Australia, her country predominantly around Lake MacKay, which has been central to the cultural and spiritual life of the Pintupi people for thousands of years. MacKay Lake is a large, dry salt lake, which straddles the northwest border of Kintore. In this painting, the symbol of the kangaroo man is a “dreamtime” God who, through the gift of morphogenesis, changes the appearance of the dead; these men represented are Linda's father and stepfather. It also shows us its landscape and the heat marked by this red sun which never ceases to strike in the Australian desert.