Azaria Nampijinpa Robertson, Marlu Jukurrpa (Red Kangaroo Dreaming) Yarnardilyi & Jurnti, 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Azaria Nampijinpa Robertson
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 6533/23
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This painting depicts the Marlu Jukurrpa (red kangaroo [Macropus rufus] Dreaming) from Yarnardilyi and Jurnti (Mt Dennison area). ‘Marlu’ are highly valued as a food source by Warlpiri people. In the story of this painting an old ancestral kangaroo named Warlawee, who made its camp at Jurnti and moves from place to place - hunting during the day and returning at night to the camp, which it has formed by digging depressions in the soft ground. Warlawee traveled around large areas of country looking for their preferred foods, which include ‘yukuri’ (fresh green growth) and ‘yulkardi’ (desert cucumber [Mukia micrantha]) a low-growing herb found underneath ‘mulga’ trees which is used by Warlpiri people for medicinal purposes. He is thinking about having a ceremony for men. Women are not permitted to dance in this ceremony. This Jukurrpa is the custodial responsibility of Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men and Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. Concentric circles are often used in depictions of this story to represent the rocks at Yarnardilyi. The arc shapes depict the kangaroo's camp in the Jurnti area and 'E' and hooked shapes usually depict the ‘marlu wirliya’ (kangaroo fore and hind footprints) while long, straight lines represent the ‘marlu ngirnti’ (kangaroo tail tracks).

Azaria Nampijinpa Robertson was born in 1988 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs. Azaria grew up in Yuendumu where she went to school. She is married to Francis Japangardi Forest. They have two children, one boy and one girl. Azaria has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2003. She paints her Grandmother’s Jukurrpa, Dreaming depicting Mina Mina, country far west of Yuendumu. Azaria uses traditional designs and icons in her artwork denoting place, and describing the journey of a group of women gathering food and uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture. She likes to paint through the art centre as often as she is able to while caring for her two children. She currently works with the Mount Theo Sniffer Program, an aboriginal incentive of tribal elders, started in 1994 with no outside resources and with the full support of the community which turned out to be the most successful strategy for dealing with the problem of petrol sniffing.