Felicity Napangardi Michaels, Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa, 30x30cm

• Artist - Felicity Napangardi Michaels
• Community - Nyirripi  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 1474/18ny
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang 
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The subject of this work is Lappi Lappi, a rock hole near Lake Hazlett, about 90 km northwest of Lake Mackay in Western Australia. The country belongs to Nampijinpa/Jampijinpa and Nangala/Jangala skin groups. Located in a sheltered basin, the rock hole at Lappi Lappi is a permanent source of water, and is surrounded by country rich in bush tucker. In the time of the Jukurrpa (Dreamtime) many mothers with young children would gather there because it was a safe place to stay. The rock hole at Lappi Lappi is home to a ‘warnayarra’, a rainbow serpent that travels underground between various rock holes. One day, women were gathered at the rock hole with their children, singing and dancing. When the ‘warnayarra’ heard the sound of voices, it travelled silently towards them, under the water. When it reached the edge of the rock hole, it rose out of the water and ate them all.

Felicity Napangardi Michaels was born in Perth, capital of Western Australia, while her parents were visiting from Wirrimanu (Balgo), a small Aboriginal community located on the boundary between the Great Sandy Desert and the Tanami Desert of central and Western Australia. When she was young she lived in Balgo with her parents and two brothers then they moved to Nyirripi, NT, where her grandmother the late Mary Anne Nampijinpa Michaels lived. Nyirripi is a a small aboriginal community east of Balgo and 160 km south west of Yuendumu. She attended Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. When she finished school, she returned to Nyirripi and worked in the shop.

Felicity has been painting with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu since 2017. When she was growing up she watched her grandma Mary Anne Nampijinpa Michaels paint and listened to her stories, stories that have been passed down through the ages. She paints her Grandmother’s Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa, using traditional iconology and her grandma’s palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When she’s not painting, she likes listening to music and hunting with family and friends.