Paddy Japanangka Lewis, Mina Mina Jukurrpa - Ngalyipi, 91x91cm

• Artist - Paddy Japanangka Lewis
• Community - Nyirripi 
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 4711/10  
• Materials - Acrylic on linen  
• Size(cm) - H91 W91 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping

The country associated with this Jukurrpa is Mina Mina, a place far to the west of Yuendumu, which is significant to Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men. All of them are the custodians of the Jukurrpa that created the area. The Jukurrpa story tells of the journey of a group of women of all ages who travelled to the east gathering food, collecting ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine [Tinospora smilacina]) and performing ceremonies as they travelled. The women began their journey at Mina Mina where ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks) emerged from the ground. Taking these implements the women travelled east creating Janyinki and other sites. Their journey took them far to the east beyond the boundaries of Warlpiri country. The ‘ngalyipi’ vine grows up the trunks and limbs of the ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak [Allocasuarina decaisneana]) trees. ‘Ngalyipi’ is a sacred vine to Napangardi and Napanangka women that has many uses. It can be used as a ceremonial wrap, as a strap to carry ‘parrajas’ (wooden bowls) that are laden with bush tucker and as a tourniquet for headaches.

Paddy Japanangka Lewis was born circa 1925, in the bush around Yuendumu/Nyirripi. He lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with his parents, siblings and extended Warlpiri family. They would have travelled vast distances across desert country, showing him his sites and teaching him the traditional ways of his country. Paddy is the father of Dorothy Napangardi, the celebrated Aboriginal artist. He was a senior law man who lived and died in Nyirripi, an Aboriginal community 460 kms north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. He painted with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, from 1999 until his death in 2011. He mainly painted his Mina Mina Jukurrpa, Dreamings associated with his country Mina Mina, a place far to the west of Yuendumu, which is significant to Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men. All of them are the custodians of the Jukurrpa that created the area. Multi-talented, he was also a performer and in 1999 performed in a short feature film called Marluku Wirlinyi: The Kangaroo Hunters, a tale of kangaroo hunting that weaves its way through Dreamtime, to the present and back again.