Balgo Dreaming"
Adam Rish, Fred Tjakamarra, Dominic Martin Tjupurrula, Alan Winderoo Tjakamarra
Balgo, July 1996, acrylic on linen, 153 X 122 cm
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The central brown  line represents the Balgo Hills with the orange line the road to Mullen passing over them. The circle is the football field and the long strip the airfield. Alan Winderoo painted the left side of the painting. The motif stems from ceremonial body painting and represents 2 boys talking about the experiences their initiation ceremonies will entail. The zigzag lines are their tracks as they dance. The small orange oval is a tchuringa. While we painted we talked about how Dominic (Martin), a deaf maupun (medicine man), had cured an American airforceman of a brain tumour. This man had come to Balgo to be treated after talking to his friend Chuck Jaeger, the test pilot of "The Right Stuff", about the power of the maupun. Apparently Chuck had seen fireflies around his plane 15 miles up above the Western Desert!