Juliette Nakamarra Morris, Wanakiji Jukurrpa (Bush Tomato Dreaming), 30x30cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Juliette Nakamarra Morris
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1990/18
• 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

The Wanakiji Jukurrpa (bush tomato [Solanum chippendalei] Dreaming) travels through Yaturlu (near Mount Theo, north of Yuendumu). “Wanakiji” grows in open spinifex country and is a small, prickly plant with purple flowers that bears green fleshy fruit with many small black seeds. After collecting the fruit the seeds are removed with a small wooden spoon called ‘kajalarra’. The fruit then can be eaten raw or threaded onto skewers called ‘turlturrpa’ and then cooked over a fire. ‘Wanakiji’ can also be skewered and left to dry. When they are prepared in this way it is called ‘turlturrpa’ and the fruit can be kept for a long time. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. The Wanakiji Jukurrpa belongs to Napanangka/Napangardi women and Japanangka/Japangardi men.

Juliette Nakamarra Morris was born in 1981 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km northwest of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Netta Williams and Wally Morris, both deceased. She was brought up in Yuendumu, attending the local school before going to Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Catholic College in Traeger Park, Alice Springs. When she finished school, she returned to Yuendumu before going to Willowra to care for her grandmother. It was in Willowra that she met her husband and they now have four children.

Juliette began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2006. She paints her mother’s Wanakiji Jukurrpa (Bush Tomato Dreaming), ‘Dreamings” that relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her mother and her mother’s father, and his father before him for millennia. “It’s all about my mother and grandpa’s country”. She can also paint her father’s Ngarlkirdi Jukurrpa (Witchetty Grub Dreaming).

When she is not painting, she is a full-time Mum, caring for her children.