Judy Napangardi Watson, Kurrkara Jukurrpa (Desert Oak Dreaming) - Mina Mina, 61x46cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Judy Napangardi Watson
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre- Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1910/05
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H61 W46 D2
• Postage variants - Posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This painting tells the story of the ‘kurrkara’ tree (Desert Oak [Allocasuarina decaisneana]) commonly found in many parts of the central desert of Australia. The ‘kurrkara’ tree is the shade tree where the women in this painting sat down to rest at Mina Mina, which is an important ceremonial place belonging to Japanangka/Japangardi men and Napanangka/Napangardi women. Mina Mina and the associated land are to the west of Yuendumu in the sandhill country. Napanangka and Napangardi women are shown here collecting ‘jintiparnta’ (edible fungus [Elderia arenivaga]) at Kanta Karlangu, an area that is also called Mina Mina. Ancestral women travelled from here to the north through Janyinki and other places then to the east to Alcoota country. There are a number of ‘mulju’ (water soakages) and a clay pan at Mina Mina and it is here that the women danced and performed various ceremonies. As a result ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks) rose up out of the ground and it is these implements that the women carried with them on their long journey east. The women danced and sang the whole way, with no sleep. The women collected other types of bush tucker as ‘yakajirri’ (desert raisin [Solanum centrale]).

Judy Napangardi Watson was born at Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family Judy made many trips on foot to her country and lived for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu, her ancestral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts. These places are rich in bush tucker such as wanakiji, bush plums, yakajirri, bush tomatoes, and wardapi, sand goanna. Judy still frequently goes hunting in the country west of Yuendumu, near her homelands. Judy was taught painting by her elder sister, Maggie Napangardi Watson. She painted alongside her at Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu, for a number of years, developing her own unique style. Though a very tiny woman Judy had ten children, four of whom she outlived. She was a woman of incredible energy; this was transmitted to her work through her dynamic use of colour, and energetic "dragged dotting" style. She was at the forefront of a move towards more abstract rendering of Jukurrpa by Warlpiri artists; however, her work retains strong kurruwarri, the details which tell of the sacredness of place and song in her culture.