2 AM 5541/08
Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula My Country 2007
Acrylic on Belgian linen 915 x 1220mm SOLD
In this painting the circle represents an important water or rock hole site that Charlotte and her family knew they
could rely on for water. The background design symbolises ceremonial body paint designs and the country
crossed by the Ancestors. The rock holes were replenished when it rained. Knowledge of where to find water
was handed down from generation to generation to ensure survival in the desert. Aboriginal people believe the
Creation or Dreamtime is the beginning of 'knowledge', when the laws of existence were put together. It is also
the beginning of time when the supernatural Ancestral beings were born out of their own eternity. It is saild the
Ancestors moved across the barren surface of the world, hunting and fighting. They changed the form of the
land creating the mountains, rivers, trees, plains, water holes and sand hills. The Ancestors were honoured by
Aboriginal people in corroborees performed at sacred sites where the spirit of the Ancestors had become part of
the landscape, or turned into entities such as rocks or trees.