Gloria Napangardi Gill, Lukarrara Jukurrpa, 122x107cm

This Jukurrpa belongs to women of the Nakamarra/Napurrurla subsections and to Jakamarra/Jupurrurla men. This Dreaming is associated with a place called Jaralypari, north of Yuendumu. Lukarrara (desert fringe-rush [Fimbristylis oxystachya & Fimbristylis eremophila]) is a grass with an edible seed. The seeds are traditionally ground on a large stone (‘ngatinyanu’) with a smaller stone (‘ngalikirri’) to make flour. This flour is mixed with water (‘ngapa’) to make damper cakes which are cooked and eaten. In Warlpiri traditional paintings iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. Large concentric circles often represent the site of Jaralypari and also the seed bearing grass Lukurrara. ‘U’ shapes can depict the Karnta (women) collecting ‘lukarrara’ and straight lines are frequently used to portray seeds that fall down to the ground and are also collected by women using their ‘parrajas’ (wooden food carriers) and ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks).

Gloria Napangardi Gill was born in 1975 in Derby, Western Australia. She spent her early years growing up in Balgo, a remote Aboriginal community located in Western Australia, linked with both the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert and eleven hours by road from Alice Springs. She went to Nulungu Catholic College in Broom and then attended the Adult Education Centre in Balgo, where she learnt life skills. She worked on the Old People’s Program in Balgo before relocating in 1997 to Nyirripi. She has one sister and three brothers, living in Lake Gregory, Tanami, WA and in Gympie, Queensland. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu, since 2010. She likes to paint her Grandfather’s Jukurrpa stories, particularly Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa, Dreamings which relate to her Grandfather’s country Lappi Lappi, near Lake Hazlett, northwest of Lake Mackay in WA, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and his father’s father before him for millennia. Gloria likes to paint as she likes working with colour and design. When she’s not painting she likes to visit her family in Balgo.