Lloyd Jungarrayi Spencer, Wardapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming) - Yarripurlangu, 30x30cm

• Artist - Lloyd Jungarrayi Spencer
• Community - Yuendumu
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 2153/17
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas 
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5 
• Postage variants - This work is posted pre-stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This Wardapi Jukurrpa (goanna [Varanus gouldii] Dreaming) comes from Yarripilangku, south-west of Yuendumu. It tells the story of a group of Karnta (Warlpiri women) that were sitting down in a circle. A man from Mt. Theo, of the Japangardi skin group named Wamaru, came up to the women. He wanted to take a girl of the wrong skin, a Nungarrayi. He took the Nungarrayi woman, named Yurlkurinyi, and went up the hill where they made love. Then the earth turned to Ngunjungunju (yellow and white ochre) and the man turned himself and all the ‘karnta’ (women) into ‘wardapi’ (goannas). The ochre is still found on top of the hill and is used today for love magic and for ceremonial decoration. This Jukurrpa belongs to the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Nungarrayi/Jungarrayi subsections. It also belongs to people from Mt Theo of the Japanangka/Napanangka, Japangardi/Napangardi subsections. In paintings of this Jukurrpa, the group of women is often represented by concentric circles and ‘U’ shapes typically are used to represent women. Concentric circles can also illustrate ‘wardapi’ holes and the droppings they leave while ‘wardapi’ tracks are usually represented by ‘W’ shapes.

Lloyd Jungarrayi Spencer was born in 1962 in Yuendumu, “four miles out bush”, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. When he was young he used to walk with his Grandfathers everywhere, learning his grandfathers’ stories from both his mother and his father’s side. He has a thirst for knowledge which began out bush; at the local school; at Yirara College in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory; and Batchelor College in Darwin. He has published/illustrated numerous books in Warlpiri and English for young children. He has been described by Andrew Stojanovski as a “firebrand of a man: articulate, full of energy and spoke at a million miles an hour when he had an idea.” He is highly active in his community and in Aboriginal Affairs including positions in the Federal Government, Interventions Programs, The Mt Theo Program that addressed chronic petrol sniffing in Yuendumu, and Community Engagement Officer for the Central Land Council, Alice Springs. His wife passed away in April 2017 leaving him and his three daughters.

Lloyd began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 1992. Although active he manages to paint in his spare time. “Painting relaxes me . . . I think about the dreamtime and my ancestor’s stories . . . knowledge about our land . . . knowledge that I can pass onto the next generation.” He paints his father’s Wardapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming) – Yarripurlangu, stories which relate directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories have been passed down to him by his father and his father before him for millennia. He uses bold colours and traditional iconography to depict his Jukurrpa stories.