Kathleen Napaljarri Doolon, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) - Pirlinyarnu, 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Kathleen Napaljarri Doolon
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 1364/17ny
• 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

The site depicted in this painting is Pirlinyarnu (Mt. Farewell), about 165 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The ‘kirda’ (owners) for the water Dreaming site at Pirlinyarnu are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men.

Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Wapurtali at Mirawarri. A ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon [Falco berigora]) carried the storm further west from Mirawarri. The two storms travelled across the country from Karlipirnpa, a ceremonial site for the water Dreaming near Kintore that is owned by members of the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Napanangka/Japanangka subsections. Along the way the storms passed through Juntiparnta, a site that is owned by Jampijinpa men. The storm eventually became too heavy for the falcon. It dropped the water at Pirlinyarnu, where it formed an enormous ‘maluri’ (claypan). A ‘mulju’ (soakage) exists in this place today. Whenever it rains today, hundreds of ‘ngapangarlpa’ (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming), associated sites, and other elements. In many paintings of this Dreaming, short dashes are often used to represent ‘mangkurdu’ (cumulus & stratocumulus clouds), and longer, flowing lines represent ‘ngawarra’ (flood waters). Small circles are used to depict ‘mulju’ (soakages) and river beds. 

Kathleen Napaljarri Doolon was born in Alice Springs Hospital in 1987, the closest hospital to Aputula (Finke), a small desert community 240 km south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Kathleen began her early schooling in Finke before going to Yuendumu, where she was brought up by her sister Grace Woods. When she graduated from Primary School, she went to Alice Springs High school, leaving at the end of Year 11. After she left school she worked as a childcare worker in Yuendumu where she met her partner. They now live in Nyirripi. They have four children, all at school.

Kathleen began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu and Nyirripi, in 2009. She began painting because she, “. . . wanted to do something quiet, do something on my own. I wanted somewhere quiet and a place to think! Painting is meditative.” Painting her maternal Grandmother’s Ngapa Jukurrpa(Water Dreaming) - Pirlinyarnu, gave her the quiet she longed for. Ngapa Jukurrpahas been passed down to her by her grandmother and her grandmother’s mother before her for millennia. Like water her paintings are soothing and because of her love for quietness she has developed an individualist style using pattern and design in a variety of contexts to depict her traditional jukurrpa.

When she is not painting, or being busy with her children she likes to go hunting for kangaroo with family and friends.