Cherina Nampijinpa Singleton, Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) - Ngarlikurlangu, 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Cherina Nampijinpa Singleton
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 770/20
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This particular site of the Yankirri Jukurrpa, (emu Dreaming [Dromaius novaehollandiae]) is at Ngarlikurlangu, north of Yuendumu. The ‘yankirri’ travelled to the rockhole at Ngarlikurlangu to find water. This Jukurrpa story belongs to Jangala/Jampijinpa men and Nangala/Nampijinpa women. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. Emus are usually represented by their ‘wirliya’ (footprints), arrow-like shapes that show them walking around Ngarlikurlangu eating ‘yakajirri’ (bush raisin [Solanum centrale]). In the time of the Jukurrpa there was a fight at Ngarlikiurlangu between a ‘yankirri’ ancestor and Wardilyka (Australian bustard [Ardeotis australis]) ancestors over sharing the ‘yakajirri’. There is also a dance for this Jukurrpa that is performed during initiation ceremonies.

Cherina Nampijinpa Singleton was born in 1986 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of Corinne and Patrick Singleton and has one brother Aaron. She is also the grand-daughter of Helen Nampijinpa Robertson, a well-known artist who paints with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation. Cherina attended the local school in Yuendumu before moving to Alice Spring to attend Yirara College, an Aboriginal Boarding College. After she finished schooling she returned to Yuendumu and shortly after began painting. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2001. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, 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. Cherina uses traditional designs and icons but with an unrestricted palette, ”I love working with colour”, to depict her traditional Jukurrpa. Cherina is married and has three children, two girls and one boy. When she is not busy looking after her husband and children and when she is not painting she likes to go hunting for goanna.