Deborah Napaljarri Wayne, Yarungkanyi Jukurrpa (Mt Doreen Dreaming), 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Deborah Napaljarri Wayne
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 1481/21
• 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

Yarrungkanyi is the Mt Doreen area north west of Yuendumu. Dreamtime people lived in the area, digging for ‘ngarlajiyi’ (bush carrot [Vigna lanceolata]). In doing so they created a creek that flows north to Jurlpungu. Women are shown seated picking ‘ngamirdamirdi’ (lifesaver burr [Sida platycalyx]), which is a low-growing prickle. The women would thread the Ngamirdamirdi onto sticks to make hair combs. The women were travelling south to Yukurra.

Deborah Napaljarri Wayne was born in 1976 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km from Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Lee Nangala Gallagher-Wayne and the Granddaughter of Mary Napangardi Gallagher, both artists who paint with Warlukurlangu Artists art centre. She is married to Peterson Jakamarra Walker, an artist also. Deborah went to Yarara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs and when she finished her schooling she returned to Yuendumu. Deborah was quite young when she first started painting for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu. She paints her grandmother’s Jukurrpa, Dreaming stories about the land, its features and animals. It was her grandmother that taught her to paint her Jukurrpa. Deborah loves to paint and chooses black, red, grey, brown and green as her palette, colours that reflect the colour of the land.