Lucy-anne Nungarrayi Long, Black Kite Dreaming - Kakurtu, 61x46cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Lucy-anne Nungarrayi Long
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 1960/19
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas  
• Size(cm) - H61 W46 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The Purlapurla Jukurrpa (black kite [Milvus migrans] Dreaming) is centred on the Kakurtu (Mount Dennison) area. ‘Purlapurla’ flies high in the sky like the ‘warlawurru’ (wedge-tailed eagle) and perches in the top of trees. This painting concerns a Japaljarri ‘purlapurla’ ancestral hero who lived there. He was striking himself with stones knives and clubs. When asked by his cousins (from the Jampijinpa moiety) why he was doing this he lied telling them it was an expression of his frustration. A woman was causing trouble and his grief was over this. In order to trick people into believing that he had a wife he used to light camp fires away from the single quarters. The ‘purlapurla’ used to fly out in search of food from one site to another. In the various places where he landed he cut himself again. At a long white hill near Napperby he cut his leg off. This hill is his leg transformed in the Jukurrpa and its name is Wankangi. In paintings of this Jukurrpa often the movements ‘purlapurla’ hero are indicated by a vertical line or lines in the painting while ‘Y’ shapes can appear indicating his footprints. The Purlapurla Jukurrpa belongs to the Nungarrayi/Napaljarri women and to the Jungarrayi/Japaljarri men.

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