Hilda Nakamarra Rogers, 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).

Hilda Nakamarra Rogers was born in Papunya, an Aboriginal community located 240 km northwest of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She attended her local school in Papunya before going to Yirara College in Alice Springs. After college she returned to Papunya and worked at the school teaching language. Hilda married a man from Yuendumu in 1987 and moved to Yuendumu, a neighboring community to Papunya where many of the same families live. Later she moved to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community approximately 160 km west of Yuendumu where she still lives. She is married to Desmond Williams and they have two sons, Micah and Eliezer. She also has a granddaughter who Hilda enjoys looking after. Both her parents are deceased and were artists at Papunya. As a child she watched her parents paint and listened to their stories. Hilda started painting in 1988 and since 2003 has begun painting consistently with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu. Hilda paints Bush tucker stories, in particular Ngurlu Jukurrpa (Native Seed Dreaming). Occasionally she paints her husband’s dreaming, Yurrumpi Jukurrpa (Honey Ant Dreaming) and her father’s dreaming, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), Dreamings which have been passed down through the generations for millennia. She likes sport and sometimes goes hunting for goanna and kangaroo and looking for bush tucker. She also enjoys visiting her husband’s family who live in Yuendumu.