Liddy Napanangka Walker, Pirlarla Jukurrpa 30x30cm

• Artist - Liddy Napanangka Walker
• Community - Yuendumu
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1001/15
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched

This story of the Pirlarla Jukurrpa (dogwood tree bean Dreaming) comes from the country near to the Yiningnarra range, south of Rabbit Flat and several hundred kilometers to the north-west of Yuendumu. This Jukurrpa travels west and begins near Yumurrpa. There, women of the Napurrula/Nakamarra subsection travelled and collected the ‘pirlarla’ (seeds and pods) of the ‘wakirlpirri’ (dogwood [Acacia coriacea]) tree, a valuable and highly prized food source. In the hot summer time the ‘pirlarla’ seed pods are collected, burnt in a fire and then cracked open. The seeds inside the pods are then ground up and make a good food. The juice from the seeds is also edible. In Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa and other elements. In paintings of this Jukurrpa the representative designs that are painted onto women's bodies during their Yawulyu ceremonies are often shown. The custodians of the Pirlarla Jukurrpa are Jakamarra/Jupurrurla men and Nakamarra/Napurrurla women.

“ I paint my father Japangardi's Dreaming and my grandfather's Dreaming. Mt Theo is my father's country and that's what I’m painting the special Dreamings from. The Dreamings I paint are bush tomato, goanna….Goanna likes to fight and is a lover boy. And I paint seed pods and bush potato and hopping mouse. There are lots of stories…I paint strongly."

Liddy was born in 1925 at Mt Doreen, and spent her younger years living with her family in bush camps. She regularly visits her country around Mt Theo, west of Yuendumu. She has lived in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs, in the NT of Australia, since it was first established and has worked in the community in various pastoral care roles including cooking for the sick or the elderly. She started painting on canvas not long after Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, was established in 1985 and Liddy is now one of its most senior members. Liddy paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreaming stories which relate directly to her land, its features and animals. These stories were passed down to her by her father and her grandfather and their parents before them for millennia.

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