Description
In this painting, the artists gives expression to his ancient Possum ancestor: Upamburra, who – along with the artist“’s ancient Tjapaltjarri Dreamtime and established this territory as his homeland.
Recognised in the work by his tracks, Upamburra“’s paw prints are shown with a wavy line, that denotes the trail made by the possum as he drags his tail, while travelling over a lush desert landscape, which hosts a spread of flowering bushes and wild bush berries.
Tracks are also present in the painting to represent the Tjapaltjarri grandfather, through in this case, the tracks are human and lead more specifically to the bush berries and Tjapaltjarri“’s symbolic body paint, which is expressed as three slightly curved lines.
These lines, essentially, are the marks of a law man: a Possum man, like the artist, who is intimately connected in kinship to Upamburra and his home country of Larumba, along with the rest of Anmetjerre territory, which has never altered from its Dreamtime state.