Warlukurlangu Artists x Vue Breakfast Cushion Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina Dreaming) by Helen Nungarrayi Reed

Helen Nungarrayi Reed was born in 1971 in Haasts Bluff, a community located 227 km west of Alice Springs in NT of Australia. She grew up in Kintore, a small Aboriginal community with a population of about 400, located 550 km west of Alice Springs, near the NT/WA border, where her father and sister still live. Her mother passed away when she was very young. She now lives in Nyirripi, originally an outstation of Yuendumu but now a small community, 440 km west from Alice Springs in Northern Territory. She lives with her husband Geoffrey Gallagher. Helen has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2014. She paints her fathers Ninkuwakal country. She likes painting because it reminds her of her father and the colours remind her of her country.

The Mina Mina Jukurrpa tells the story of a group of ancestral karnta (women) who travelled from west to east. In the Dreamtime, these ancestral women danced at Mina Mina and karlangu (digging sticks) rose up out of the ground. They collected these digging sticks and started travelling to the east. They carried their digging sticks over their shoulders and they were adorned with majardi (hairstring belts), white feathers, and necklaces made from yinirnti (bean tree) seeds. They continuously anointed themselves with minyira (shiny fat) to increase their ritual powers as they went along. As the women travelled, they were followed by a yinkardakurdaku (spotted nightjar) from the Jakamarra subsection. The bird would call out and then hide in the bushes behind them as they travelled.