Daphne Napurrurla White, Yawakiyi Jukurrpa (Native Currant Dreaming), 30x30cm

• Artist - Daphne Napurrurla White
• Community - Nyirripi 
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 1272/18ny
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted pre-stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The custodians of the Yawakiyi Jukurrpa (native currant Dreaming [Canthium latifolium]) are Napurrurla/Nakamarra women and Jupurrurla/ Jakamarra men. The ‘yawakiji’ tree is large and it bears small, black currant-like fruits. Traditionally the fruit would be gathered by women and placed in wooden food carriers. They are mixed with water before been eaten, although the ‘yawakiyi’ are sweet and can be also eaten straight off the tree. Shown in this painting are the Nakamarra and Napurrurla women collecting ‘yawakiyi’ at a place called Mititinyanyanu to the north-west of Yuendumu. The white flowers come out first then the ‘yawakiyi’ fruit grows after heavy rain. Magpie bird also eats the ‘yawakiyi’. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. In paintings of this Jukurrpa the branches of ‘yawakiyi’ are shown spread out across the country. The ‘U’ shapes represent women, while the oval shapes beside them usually depict ‘parrajas’, which are the food carriers used to collect the fruit.

Daphne Napurrurla White was born in 1981 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 has lived most of her life in Yuendumu, however, moved to Nyirripi, an Aboriginal community, that began as an outstation of Yuendumu, in 2010. Nyirripi is located a further 150 km south-west of Yuendumu. In late 2013 Daphne moved to Alice Springs, where she is now living.

Daphne has been painting on and off for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation; an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre, since 1997. She mainly paints her Father’s Jukurrpa, in particular Yurrampi Jukurrpa (Honey Ant Dreaming) and Warna Jukurrpa (Snake Dreaming).These dreamings relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. They were passed down to her father by his father and his father’s father before him for millennia. Daphne uses traditional designs and icons with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.