Papuun is a site in the remote Gibson Desert of Western Australia. This is Katjarra Butler’s Country, which she grew up traversing by foot. In her Wynne 2023 work, she has painted Papuun, with its four rock holes, one of which is very large. Butler remembers swimming there during ‘the hot times’ with her family.
Papuun means ‘to fan smoke with your hands’ and references the tjukurrpa of this site. Here, a woman named Kutungu, who was travelling from the south-west, trapped a pack of dogs in one of the rock holes by enclosing the entrance with dirt. Kutungu lit a fire to smoke out the dogs, fanning it into the burrow with her hands. When they came out, the dogs were dizzy and sick, and Kutungu hunted and feasted on them, before she continued her journey westward.
Butler has been painting since the 1990s and is known for her dynamic and colourful paintings of Country. She works through Tjarlirli Art, and was a Wynne finalist in 2021.