aboriginal artist: Jacqueline Nakamarra

View artworks by Jacqueline Nakamarra

Jacqueline Reid Nakamarra was born in 1958 in Papunya, and sadly passed in 2023. She is the daughter of Makinti Napanangka, one of the pioneers of the artistic movement in the western desert among women and a famous artist, and sister to Winnie Reid Nakamarra, also an artist.  Both of Makinti’s daughters have been painting the stories as passed down by their famous mother.

Jacqueline’s paintings depict designs associated with the sites of Lupulnga, a rockhole situated south of the Kintore Community. The Peewee (small bird) Dreaming is associated with the site, as well as the Kungka Kutjarra, or Two Travelling Women Dreaming. During mythological times a group of ancestral women visited this site holding ceremonies associated with the area, before continuing their travels north to Kaakuratintja (Lake MacDonald) and later the Kintore area.

The linear components in Jacqueline’s work depicts sandhills, but they also refer to hairstring, which is human hair spun by women and used for belts or skirts worn by Pintupi Aboriginal women during ceremonies.