Martina Napangardi Wheeler, Mirri-jarra Jukurrpa (Shield Dreaming), 50x40cm

• Aboriginal Artist -Martina Napangardi Wheeler
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation
• Catalogue number - 5775/22
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H50 W40 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

The Jukurrpa represented in this painting belongs to a place to the north of Yuendumu, near Wakurlpa, called Mirrijarra. Here two men were making ‘kurdiji’ (shields) from the wood of ‘yinirnti’ (bean tree [Erythrina vespertilio]). The two men left their ‘kurdiji’ at Mirrijarra and travelled on to the east. Two rock holes in the side of the rocky hill mark the place where they were making their ‘kurdiji’ and these rockholes make the shape of the ‘miri’ (handle) of the shield. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements in each painting. In paintings of this Dreaming, Mirri-jarra is typically indicated by concentric circle and the ‘kurdiji’ are usually depicted with their hand grips. ‘U’ shapes usually are shown representing men while long atrait lines beside them are usually depicting ‘kurlada’ (spears). ‘Karli (boomerangs), clubs, and stone knives can sometimes be depicted.

Ingrid Napangardi Williams was born in 1976 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 Pamela Napururrla Walker and Warren Japanangka Williams and has one sister Bernadette Williams. She attended the local primary school then Yirara College, a boarding school in Alice Springs. When Ingrid finished school she returned home, where she worked at the school, helping with the little ones, then the Old People’s home and later the School of Nutrition. Ingrid is married to Steven Jakamarra Oldfield.

Ingrid began painting with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 1999. She paints her father’s Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Snake Vine Dreaming) – Purturla; her mother’s Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming) and sometimes her father’s Wardapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming) – Yarripurlangu. These ‘dreamings’ relate directly to her land, stories that have been passed down through the generations for millennia. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When she is not painting she sometimes goes hunting for bush tucker with her family.