Liddy Napanangka Walker, Wakirlpirri Jukurrpa (Dogwood Tree Dreaming), 46x46cm

• Artist - Liddy Napanangka Walker
• Community - Yuendumu
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 531/12
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas
• Size(cm) - H46 W46 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The main motif of this painting depicts the ‘wakirlpirri’ (dogwood [Acacia coriacea]) tree. ‘Wakirlpirri’ is a very useful tree that grows on the sides of creek beds and near ‘mulga’ trees. The seeds of this tree can be eaten raw or cooked on the fire. A deliciously sweet drink called ‘yinjirrpi’ is made from the seeds when they have been dried. The wood can be used to make weapons such as ‘karli’ (boomerangs) and dancing boards for ceremonies. It is also good wood for burning on the fire because rain cannot extinguish burning Wakirlpirri wood. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. This Jukurrpa travels from Jarrarda-Jarrayi through to Puturlu (Mount Theo) west of Yuendumu. This Jukurrpa belongs to Japanangka/Japangardi men and to Napanangka/Napangardi women.

“ I paint my father Japangardi's Dreaming and my grandfather's Dreaming. Mt Theo is my father's country and that's what I’m painting the special Dreamings from. The Dreamings I paint are bush tomato, goanna….Goanna likes to fight and is a lover boy. And I paint seed pods and bush potato and hopping mouse. There are lots of stories…I paint strongly."

Liddy was born in 1925 at Mt Doreen, and spent her younger years living with her family in bush camps. She regularly visits her country around Mt Theo, west of Yuendumu. She has lived in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs, in the NT of Australia, since it was first established and has worked in the community in various pastoral care roles including cooking for the sick or the elderly. She started painting on canvas not long after Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, was established in 1985 and Liddy is now one of its most senior members. Liddy paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreaming stories which relate directly to her land, its features and animals. These stories were passed down to her by her father and her grandfather and their parents before them for millennia.