Linda Syddick Napaltjarri is also known as Tjunkiya Wukula Napaltjarri. She was born in the area of Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay), Western Australia and belongs to the Pintupi/Pitjantjatjara language group. Linda is the daughter of Wanala Nangala and Rintja Tjungurrayi. Linda began her life in a more traditional way and lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle until around eight or nine years of age. At this point her family decided to settle at the Lutheran Mission at Haasts Bluff.
Her paintings reflect both the traditional way of life and also her father’s and stepfather’s stories which they were responsible for. Under traditional law and as an act of revenge, Linda’s father was killed by a spear when she was approximately 18 months old and was henceforth raised by her stepfather and artist Lankata Shorty Tjungurrayi. Lankata passed on his Dreaming stories to Linda before he died in 1985. Linda was taught how to paint these stories by her two uncles Uta Uta Tjangala and Nosepeg Tjupurrula.
Some of the stories Linda paints include the Dreaming story of the Tingari and the Emu Men. The Emu men were ancestral beings that roamed the landscape during the creation period leaving behind evidence of their presence in the form of marks on the landscape. The various rocky outcrops, valleys, ridges and other landscape formations tell the stories of the Emu men’s travels, teaching and instructing the law and customs to the people belonging to that country. Most of Linda’s paintings focus on the area around Lake Mackay, which is central to the cultural and spiritual life of the Pintupi people for many thousands of years. Because the Western Desert people were semi-nomadic they spent part of their time around the lake carrying out trade and ceremonies. Lake Mackay is a large dry salt lake located north-west of Kintore.
Traditionally paintings were commonly made in the sand and generally had an aerial aspect to them, however the figures are painted as though laying down. So the paintings often have two different aspects to them. The spirits Linda paints represent the spirits that are depicted in the rock art at Tjindara (located in Western Australia), which is often visited by Pintupi people. The paintings found on the rock at Tjindara are recorded as being at least fifteen thousand years old.
