Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart, Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush-tail Possum Dreaming) - Mawurrji, 91x61cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 766/19
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H91 W61 D2 
• Postage variants - Posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

Janganpa Jukurrpa (common brush-tail possum [Trichosurus vulpecula] Dreaming) travels all over Warlpiri country. ‘Janganpa’ are nocturnal animals that often nest in the hollows of white gum trees (‘wapunungka’). This story comes from a big hill called Mawurrji, west of Yuendumu and north of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs). A group of ‘janganpa’ ancestors resided there. Every night they would go out in search of food. Their hunting trips took them to Wirlki and Wanapirdi, where they found ‘pamapardu’ (flying ants). They journeyed on to Ngarlkirdipini looking for water. A Nampijinpa women was living at Mawurrji with her two daughters. She gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla ‘janganpa’ but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla angrily pursued the woman. He tracked them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place. Warlpiri people perform a young men’s initiation ceremony, which involves the Janganpa Jukurrpa. The Janganpa Jukurrpa belongs to Jakamarra/Jupurrurla men and Nakamarra/Napurrurla women. In Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent this Jukurrpa. ‘Janganpa’ tracks are often represented as 'E' shaped figures and concentric circles are used to depict the trees in which the ‘janganpa’ live, and also the sites at Mawurrji.

“I like the Aboriginal colours, the desert colours¬--red, black, white, yellow, orange and brown.” Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart was born in Alice Spring’s Hospital but lives in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the only daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, the Chairman of Warlukurlangu Art Centre, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, and one of its founding and most long-standing artists and also one of the main artists of the Yuendumu School Doors. Queenie grew up in Yuendumu and attended the local school. She has two children, Dion and Bevan from her first marriage and several grand-children. She is married to Edward Jangala Smith, also a painter with the art centre. She has been painting with the art centre since 1997, often painting together with her father and learning the large number of traditional Dreaming stories. Both Paddy Stewart and Queenie are traditional owners of the land where Yuendumu is located. She likes painting all the time, painting on canvas and linen and sometimes painting beads, coolamons or music sticks. In 2002 Queenie travelled to Sydney with the Warlukurlangu Artists to represent her paintings in a Group Exhibition.