Ada Nangala Dixon, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) - Puyurru, 61x61cm

The site depicted in this painting is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. In the usually dry creek beds are ‘mulju’ (soakages), or naturally occurring wells. The 'kirda' (owners) for this site are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. The storm travelled across the country from the east to the west, initially travelling with a ‘pamapardu Jukurrpa’ (termite Dreaming) from Warntungurru to Warlura, a waterhole 8 miles east of Yuendumu. At Warlura, a gecko called Yumariyumari blew the storm on to Lapurrukurra and Wilpiri. Bolts of lightning shot out at Wirnpa (also called Mardinymardinypa) and at Kanaralji. At this point the Dreaming track also includes the ‘kurdukurdu mangkurdu Jukurrpa’ (children of the clouds Dreaming). The water Dreaming built hills at Ngamangama using baby clouds and also stuck long pointy clouds into the ground at Jukajuka, where they can still be seen today as rock formations.

Ada Nangala Dixon was born in 1952 at Mt Doreen, an extensive cattle breeding station about 55 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. Born into a well-known artist family, her father is Pegleg Jampijinpa, a successful Pintupi artists who passed away in early 2006 and her mother is Margaret Napangardi Brown, a successful artist with Warlukurlangu Artists who passed away in 2013.. She attended the local School at Yuendumu and when she finished school she helped out at the Yuendumu School and then Nyirripi School, making lunches and cleaning. She is married and has 5 kids and 7 grandchildren.

Ada began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2009. She would watch her sister Joy Nangala Brown paint and decided she would paint too. She paints her Father’s Jukurrpa (Dreaming), especially Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), Dreamings which have been passed down over the generations for millennia and relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Ada uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When Ada is not painting she goes hunting especially on the weekends, “I love it!”