Angelina Nampijinpa Tasman, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) - Pirlinyarnu, 107x61cm

• Artist - Angelina Nampijinpa Tasman 
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 2086/17
• Materials - Acrylic on linen  
• Size(cm) - H107 W61 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping

The site depicted in this painting is Pirlinyarnu (Mt. Farewell), about 165 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The ‘kirda’ (owners) for the water Dreaming site at Pirlinyarnu are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men.

Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Wapurtali at Mirawarri. A ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon [Falco berigora]) carried the storm further west from Mirawarri. The two storms travelled across the country from Karlipirnpa, a ceremonial site for the water Dreaming near Kintore that is owned by members of the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Napanangka/Japanangka subsections. Along the way the storms passed through Juntiparnta, a site that is owned by Jampijinpa men. The storm eventually became too heavy for the falcon. It dropped the water at Pirlinyarnu, where it formed an enormous ‘maluri’ (claypan). A ‘mulju’ (soakage) exists in this place today. Whenever it rains today, hundreds of ‘ngapangarlpa’ (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming), associated sites, and other elements. In many paintings of this Dreaming, short dashes are often used to represent ‘mangkurdu’ (cumulus & stratocumulus clouds), and longer, flowing lines represent ‘ngawarra’ (flood waters). Small circles are used to depict ‘mulju’ (soakages) and river beds.

Angeline Nampijinpa Tasman was born in 1951 at Mount Doreen Station, an extensive breeding cattle station located 55 km north-west of Yuendumu. When Angeline was a little girl she moved to Yuendumu with her parents and her four sisters and two brothers. She attended the local school in Yuendumu. When she left school she worked at the store for a few years and then at the school as an assistant teacher teaching the little kids. She married Alec Japangardi Tasman and they have four girls and one boy. One daughter lives in Katherine and their son lives in Darwin. They have a total of nine grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Angeline began painting in 2004 after ’looking at the elder ladies painting’. She did not paint a great deal at the beginning but since 2007, after the children had grown up, she has been painting consistently with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre located in Yuendumu. She paints mainly her father’s and her grandfather’s Jukurrpa stories, particularly Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), Dreamings relating directly to her country, its features and the animals and plants that live on the land. When Angeline is not painting, she enjoys sitting around with her grandchildren, telling them stories.