Tiffany Nakamarra Ross, Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming) - Cockatoo Creek, 107x61cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Tiffany Nakamarra Ross
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 2915/21
• Materials - Acrylic on linen
• Size(cm) - H107 W61 D2
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted un-stretched and rolled for shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This Yarla Jukurrpa belongs to men of the Japaljarri/Jungarrayi subsections and to Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. It comes from an area to the east of Yuendumu called Cockatoo Creek. ‘Yarla’ (bush potato [Ipomea costata]) are fibrous tubers that grow beneath a low spreading plant, found by looking for cracks in the ground. This edible tuber grows from ‘yartura’ (roots) which seek out moisture to spout new plants. Yarla are good to eat, when cooked they are really soft and tasty. The Jukurrpa tells of ‘yarla’ and ‘wapirti’ (bush carrot [Vigna lanceolata]) ancestors fighting a big battle in this area. The specific site associated with this painting is a ‘mulju’ (water soakage) called Ngarparapunyu. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. The curved lines of the ‘kuruwarri’ (ceremonial designs) represent the ‘ngamarna’ (vine-like tendrils) from which grow ‘jinjirla’ (flowers). ‘Karlangu’ (digging sticks) are usually represented as straight lines. ‘Karlangu’are used by women to dig for bush tucker like Yarla and Wapirti which are found underground.

Tiffany Nakamarra Ross was born in 1986 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Francis Jupururrla Kelly who in 1988 was selected by The Power Gallery, Sydney University to travel to Paris with five other Warlpiri men from Yuendumu to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition 'Magiciens de la Terre' at the Centre Georges Pompidou. She is also the granddaughter of Tess Napaljarri and Jack Jakamarra Ross, major Warlpiri artists from Yuendumu. Tiffany grew up with the Ross family in Yuendumu, travelling to and fro between Alice Springs and Yuendumu. She went to school in Alice Springs and later in Yuendumu. She is now married and has two daughters.

Tiffany began painting with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2003. She has painted on and off until 2015, when she began to paint seriously. She paints her mother’s Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming) and her grandfather’s Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Snake Vine Dreaming). “I like painting my bush potato, like different colours and different patterns.”  She likes working with colour and uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When she is not painting, “I like to go hunting . . .  when I can get a car.” She also likes to “watch telly—all together”.