Rosie Nangala Flemming, Ngapa manu Warna Jukurrpa (Water & Snake Dreaming), 107x61cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Rosie Nangala Flemming
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalog number - 1452/04
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H61 W107 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This painting describes the path followed by the Ngapa (Rain/Water) Jukurrpa as it travelled to Mikanji from the East. The circles in the painting represent the sites created throughout the Dreaming's travels. TIn the painting Mangkurdu, clouds are depicted as small wavy lines whilst the small roundels represent Milpirri, larger clouds, sitting in the sky heavy with rain. The sinuous lines in the centre of the work represent Ngawarra (flood water) as it flows across the land. This Jukurrpa belongs to Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men. Yurnturrkunyu, the carpet snake left his camp at Yaluyumu, near Napperby Station to travel to Palkurda, near Wanapiyi (Mt.Dorren). He travelled underground and looked around. He was visiting another carpet snake ,his friend. Yurnturrkunyu later returned to his camp at Yaluyumu and stopped there.The Dreaming belongs to Jampijinpa / Jangala men and Nungala and Nampijinpa women. The wavy lines represent the snakes.

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.