Joy Napangardi Michaels, Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa, 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Joy Napangardi Michaels
• Community - Nyirripi  
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 2589/20ny
• 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

The subject of this work is Lappi Lappi, a rock hole near Lake Hazlett, about 90 km northwest of Lake Mackay in Western Australia. The country belongs to Nampijinpa/Jampijinpa and Nangala/Jangala skin groups. Located in a sheltered basin, the rock hole at Lappi Lappi is a permanent source of water, and is surrounded by country rich in bush tucker. In the time of the Jukurrpa (Dreamtime) many mothers with young children would gather there because it was a safe place to stay. The rock hole at Lappi Lappi is home to a ‘warnayarra’, a rainbow serpent that travels underground between various rock holes. One day, women were gathered at the rock hole with their children, singing and dancing. When the ‘warnayarra’ heard the sound of voices, it travelled silently towards them, under the water. When it reached the edge of the rock hole, it rose out of the water and ate them all.

Joy Napangardi Michaels was born in 1991 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located 440 km from Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She was raised by her grandmother Alice Nampijinpa Henwood Michaels, a well-known Warlukurlangu artist. Joy has one sister, Simone Napangardi Morton who also paints for the Art Centre.  Joy attended the local school and finished her schooling at Kormilda, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. When she graduated from school she lived in Yuendumu  for a short time, where she worked for the Yuendumu Mining Shop, then the Childcare Centre. Joy is a single Mum and now lives in Nyirripi with her daughter who was born in 2012.

Joy has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2012. She paints her Grandmother’s Jukurrpa, Dreamings which have been passed down over the generations for millennia and relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it.  Joy paints Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa, a rock hole near Lake Hazlett.  “Painting Lappi Lappi is good. I learn a lot about my Grandmother’s dreaming - when I paint she tells me a story at the same time.”  Joy uses an unrestricted palette to paint the site of her dreaming – Lappi Lappi, developing a modern individualist style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa.

When Joy is not painting or looking after her daughter she likes to go hunting with family members.