Alicka Napanangka Brown, Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming), 61x46cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Alicka Napanangka Brown
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 2345/18
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas
• Size(cm) - H61 W46 D2 
• Postage variants - Artwork is posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping

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 strait lines. ‘Karlangu’are used by women to dig for bush tucker like Yarla and Wapirti which are found underground.

Alicka Napanangka Brown was born on the 9^th May 1998, 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 Maria Nampinjinpa Brown and Grand-daughter of Wendy Nungarrayi Brown, well-known artists in their own right. She has one sister Antoinette Napanangka Brown who also paints for Warlukurlangu Art Centre. Alicka comes from a long line of artists and has a good grounding in painting, watching her family paint and listening to her stories since she was a child.

In 2012, at the age of 14, Alicka began painting for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu. She mainly paints her Grandmother’s Yanjirlpirri Jukurrpa (Star Dreaming) and her father’s Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming), stories that relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. She began using traditional iconography but because of her love for pattern and colour she has developed an individualist style using pattern and design in a variety of contexts to depict her traditional jukurrpa.

Alicka attended the local Yuendumu school. When she finished school, she devoted all her time to painting.