Rosie Nangala Flemming, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) - Pirlinyarnu, 30.5x30.5cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Rosie Nangala Flemming
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalog number - 1939/12
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas
• Size(cm) - H30.5 W30.5 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. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Wapurtali. The two storms travelled across the country, from Karlipinpa near Kintore. A Kirrkarlanji (brown falcon [Falco berigora]) carried the storm further west until it dropped the storm at Pirlinyarnu, forming an enormous Maliri (lake). A “mulju” (soakage) exists in this place today. At Puyurru the bird dug up a ‘warnayarra’ (rainbow serpent). The serpent carried water with it to create another large lake. Whenever it rains today hundreds of ‘ngapangarlpa’ (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu. The ‘kirda’ (custodians) for this Jukurrpa are Jangala/Jampijinpa men and Nangala/ Nampijinpa women.

Rosie Nangala Fleming was born around 1928, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family she travelled around the country in the traditional way, visiting sacred sites and learning about her ancestors, her creation stories and her country. She and her late husband came from their ancestral country to live in Yuendumu when it began as a settlement sometime in the late 1940's. As a young woman, Rosie Nangala began working for Mrs Fleming, a Baptist missionary who assisted her in establishing a Warlpiri Women's museum at Yuendumu in the late 1970's, as a keeping place for ceremonial objects and a centre for women to meet. Rosie became president of the museum and administered it for many years. Rosie Nangala made artifacts, seed necklaces and mats for a number of years and when Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre, was established in 1985, Rosie was one of the first women to paint with acrylic on canvas. She paints her mother’s and her father’s Jukurrpa stories, stories which relate directly to her land, its features and animals. These stories were passed down to her by her father and mother and their parents before them for millennia. Her Dreamings are ngapa (water) from her mother’s side; and warlukurlangu (fire) and Yankirri (emu) from her father’s side. Every week day Rosie comes to the art centre, sits with her friends and paints. She still likes to go hunting when she can.