Alfreda Nungarrayi Martin, Marlu Jukurrpa (Red Kangaroo Dreaming) Yarnardilyi & Jurnti, 30x30cm

• Artist - Alfreda Nungarrayi Martin
• Community - Nyirripi
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 683/16ny
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas 
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5 
• Postage variants - This work is posted pre-stretched and ready to hang

This painting depicts the Marlu Jukurrpa (red kangaroo [Macropus rufus] Dreaming) from Yarnardilyi and Jurnti (Mt Dennison area). ‘Marlu’ are highly valued as a food source by Warlpiri people. In the story of this painting an old ancestral kangaroo named Warlawee, who made its camp at Jurnti and moves from place to place - hunting during the day and returning at night to the camp, which it has formed by digging depressions in the soft ground. Warlawee traveled around large areas of country looking for their preferred foods, which include ‘yukuri’ (fresh green growth) and ‘yulkardi’ (desert cucumber [Mukia micrantha]) a low-growing herb found underneath ‘mulga’ trees which is used by Warlpiri people for medicinal purposes. He is thinking about having a ceremony for men. Women are not permitted to dance in this ceremony. This Jukurrpa is the custodial responsibility of Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men and Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. Concentric circles are often used in depictions of this story to represent the rocks at Yarnardilyi. The arc shapes depict the kangaroo's camp in the Jurnti area and 'E' and hooked shapes usually depict the ‘marlu wirliya’ (kangaroo fore and hind footprints) while long, straight lines represent the ‘marlu ngirnti’ (kangaroo tail tracks).

Alfreda Nungarrayi Martin was born in 1978 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in NT of Australia. Alfreda comes from a well-established family of artists—her mother is Helen Nampijinpa Robertson, her grandfather is Shorty Jangala Robertson, and Alfreda’s step-father is Paddy Japaljarri Stewart—all well-known artists both in Australia and overseas. Alfreda attended the local school in Yuendumu and completed her studies (Year 12) through the Northern Territory Secondary Correspondence School (now the NT Open Education Centre). As part of her studies she attended Residential School in Darwin where students attended a week of timetabled lessons with teachers for all their subjects. When she completed her studies she looked for work. One of her jobs was preparing lunch for pupils at the local school in Yuendumu. Although Alfreda first began painting for Warlukurlangu in 2008, shortly after she began painting for herself, displaying her works in Alice Spring to sell. She has recently come back to Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu, where her grandfather, Shorty Jangala and her step-father, Paddy Japaljarri regularly paint. Alfreda likes to paint, especially her father’s dreaming, Yurrampi Jukurrpa (Honey Ant Dreaming), dreamings which have been passed down to her from her father’s side and from his father’s side before him for millennia. She also likes to paint her grandfather’s dreaming¬¬Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming). These dreamings relate directly to the land and its features, and the plants and animals that live on it. Alfreda never married, nor has she had children of her own, however she has many nieces and nephews to play with.