Wilma Napangardi Poulson, Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughn Springs Dreaming), 30x30cm

• Artist - Wilma Napangardi Poulson
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 40/18 
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang
• 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.

Wilma Napangardi Poulson was born in 1970 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km from Alice Springs in NT of Australia. She has a sister, Ivy Napangardi Poulson, an artist also working with Warlukurlangu Artists, and a brother who alternates between Darwin and Nyirripi. Wilma went to the local school in Yuendumu, then to Yirara College in Alice Springs. When she finished schooling she returned to Yuendumu. Wilma has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2004. She paints several dreamings, but the ones that feature constantly are the Bush Banana Dreaming depicting Vaughan Springs country and the Snake Vine Dreaming relating to Mt Theo area. These Dreamings were passed down to her by her father and his father’s father for millennia. These stories relate to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Wilma was married but her husband passed away. She has no children but loves to take care of her nephew.