Tingari Tjukurrpa

This painting is inspired by the painting of Desmonds father Barney Campbell. Here he depicts the Tingari Tjukurrpa story which refers to groups of Ancestors - mythical men and women that travelled throughout the land performing ceremonies to shape the material world. The Tingari story is mostly of a secret nature, and the men are usually given greater emphasis than the women. Aboriginal people believe the Creation or Dreamtime is the beginning of ‘knowledge’, when the laws of existence were put together. It is also the beginning of time when the supernatural Ancestral beings were born out of their own eternity. It is said the Ancestors moved across the then barren surface of the world, holding ceremonies, hunting and fighting. In doing so they changed the form of the land creating the mountains, rivers, trees, plains, water holes and sand hills. The Ancestors were honoured by Aboriginal people in corroborees performed at sacred sites where the spirit of the Ancestors had became part of the landscape, or turned into entities such as rocks or trees.