Phyllis Napurrurla Williams, Ngapa Jukurrpa - Pirlinyarnu, 30x30cm

• Artist - Phyllis Napurrurla Williams
• Community - Nyirripi  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 884/15ny   
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H30 W30 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang

The site depicted in this painting is Pirlinyarnu (Mt. Farewell), about 165 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The ‘kirda’ (owners) for the water Dreaming site at Pirlinyarnu are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men.

Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Wapurtali at Mirawarri. A ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon [Falco berigora]) carried the storm further west from Mirawarri. The two storms travelled across the country from Karlipirnpa, a ceremonial site for the water Dreaming near Kintore that is owned by members of the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Napanangka/Japanangka subsections. Along the way the storms passed through Juntiparnta, a site that is owned by Jampijinpa men. The storm eventually became too heavy for the falcon. It dropped the water at Pirlinyarnu, where it formed an enormous ‘maluri’ (claypan). A ‘mulju’ (soakage) exists in this place today. Whenever it rains today, hundreds of ‘ngapangarlpa’ (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming), associated sites, and other elements. In many paintings of this Dreaming, short dashes are often used to represent ‘mangkurdu’ (cumulus & stratocumulus clouds), and longer, flowing lines represent ‘ngawarra’ (flood waters). Small circles are used to depict ‘mulju’ (soakages) and river beds.

Phyllis Napurrurla Williams was born a long time ago at Mount Doreen Station, an extensive cattle breeding station, about 55 km from Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. As a small child Phyllis went bush with her family learning all about her country. For a while she worked at Mount Doreen Station, then she moved to Yuendumu and now she lives in Nyirripi, once an outstation of Yuendumu but now a small remote Aboriginal community. She is a widow and as no children. Phyllis has been painting since 1988 with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs. Phyllis particularly likes painting Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush Tail Possum Dreaming) but also paints other stories, stories that have been passed down to her by her father and her mother and their parents before them for millennia. When she’s not painting she loves to go hunting with members of the community for bush tucker.

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