Hairstring Skirts 

Makinti Napanangka made this painting, "Hairstring Skirts" with acrylic on linen. The patterns of vertical lines depict women's ceremonial skirts. Napanangka was a Luritja woman from the Pintupi language group in central Australia. Her painting is tied to the acrylic painting movement that began in the Indigenous community of Papunya in the 1970s, supported by the encouragement of a white schoolteacher. The painting refers to women's ceremonies which are an important expression of social identity and cultural continuity. As Indigenous people were pushed off their lands and their traditional ways of life disrupted, art became a means of preserving their culture and communicating it to the outside world. It also became a source of economic empowerment, with Indigenous art centers playing a key role in supporting artists and promoting their work. To appreciate the deeper meaning and power of this painting, we can investigate the history of Indigenous art in Australia, and understand the role it has played in asserting cultural identity and challenging colonial structures.