Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart, Karnta Jukurrpa (Womens Dreaming), 76x46cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 780/19
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H76 W46 D2 
• Postage variants - Posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

Warlpiri women hunt for a number of different bush foods at different times of the year. These include ‘ngarlkirdi’ (witchetty grubs [Endoxyla leucomochla larvae]), ‘yunkaranyi’ (honey ants [Camponotus inflatus]), ‘jintiparnta’ and ‘purlantarri’ (desert truffle [Elderia arenivaga]), ‘yuparli’ (bush bananas [Marsdenia australis]), ‘janmarda’ (bush onions [Cyperus bulbosus]), ‘pirlala’ (bush beans [Acacia coriacea seeds]), ‘ngarlajiyi’ (bush carrots [Vigna lanceolata]), ‘wayipi’ (small bush carrots [Boerhavia diffusa]), and ‘yakajirri’ (bush raisins [Solanum centrale]). Women traditionally dug for these foods using wooden ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks). The end of the digging sticks were charred and ground on a stone surface to create a bevelled edge. Today many Warlpiri women use crowbars (also called ‘karlangu’) to dig for bush foods. Collected bush foods are traditionally carried in ‘parraja’ (coolamons), which can be carried with a strap made from the ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine [Tinospora smilacina]). 

In Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa and other elements. Concentric circles are often used to represent the bush foods that the women have collected, while straight lines can be used to depict the ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks). Sinuous lines are often used to represent the ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine).

“I like the Aboriginal colours, the desert colours¬--red, black, white, yellow, orange and brown.” Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart was born in Alice Spring’s Hospital but lives in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the only daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, the Chairman of Warlukurlangu Art Centre, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, and one of its founding and most long-standing artists and also one of the main artists of the Yuendumu School Doors. Queenie grew up in Yuendumu and attended the local school. She has two children, Dion and Bevan from her first marriage and several grand-children. She is married to Edward Jangala Smith, also a painter with the art centre. She has been painting with the art centre since 1997, often painting together with her father and learning the large number of traditional Dreaming stories. Both Paddy Stewart and Queenie are traditional owners of the land where Yuendumu is located. She likes painting all the time, painting on canvas and linen and sometimes painting beads, coolamons or music sticks. In 2002 Queenie travelled to Sydney with the Warlukurlangu Artists to represent her paintings in a Group Exhibition.