Selina Napanangka Fisher, Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming), 76x61cm

• Artist - Selina Napanangka Fisher
• Community - Nyirripi
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 3610/19ny
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H76 W61 D2
• Postage variants - This work is posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station. Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the home of two rainbow serpents, ancestral heroes who lived together as man and wife. The woman ‘rainbow serpent’ was of the Napanangka skin group, the man was a Japangardi. This was a taboo relationship contrary to Warlpiri religious law. Women of the Napanangka and Napangardi subsection sat by the two serpents, picking lice off them. For this service, the two serpents allowed the women to take water from the springs at Pikilyi. This was because the serpents were the ‘kirda’, or ceremonial owners, for that country. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today. This Dreamings belongs to the women and men of the Japanangka/Napanangka and Japangardi/Napangardi skin groups.

Selina Napanganka Fisher was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. At the time her parents were living in Yuendumu. She has three sisters and two brothers. Her Mum has since passed away and her father now lives Mt Allen with “another wife”. Selina is the granddaughter of the late Topsy Napurrurla Fisher, an established artist with Warlukurlangu Artists. Selina went to the local Yuendumu School before going to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs, where she graduated in Year 10. When she finished school, she moved to Nyirripi, where she worked in the local store. She is married to Lance Tanner, who works for the Community Development Employment Project (CDEP). They have three children.