Rahab Nungarrayi Spencer, Wardapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming), 46x46cm

• Artist - Rahab Nungarrayi Spencer
• Community - Yuendumu  
• Art Centre/Community organisation - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 5396/16 
• Materials - Acrylic on canvas  
• Size(cm) - H46 W46 D2  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted un-stretched and rolled for safe shipping 

This Wardapi Jukurrpa (goanna [Varanus gouldii] Dreaming) comes from Yarripilangku, south-west of Yuendumu. It tells the story of a group of Karnta (Warlpiri women) that were sitting down in a circle. A man from Mt. Theo, of the Japangardi skin group named Wamaru, came up to the women. He wanted to take a girl of the wrong skin, a Nungarrayi. He took the Nungarrayi woman, named Yurlkurinyi, and went up the hill where they made love. Then the earth turned to Ngunjungunju (yellow and white ochre) and the man turned himself and all the ‘karnta’ (women) into ‘wardapi’ (goannas). The ochre is still found on top of the hill and is used today for love magic and for ceremonial decoration. This Jukurrpa belongs to the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Nungarrayi/Jungarrayi subsections. It also belongs to people from Mt Theo of the Japanangka/Napanangka, Japangardi/Napangardi subsections. In paintings of this Jukurrpa, the group of women is often represented by concentric circles and ‘U’ shapes typically are used to represent women. Concentric circles can also illustrate ‘wardapi’ holes and the droppings they leave while ‘wardapi’ tracks are usually represented by ‘W’ shapes.

Rahab Nungarrayi Spencer was born in 1967 in Amoongana, an Aboriginal community 15 kms south-east of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Just after Rahab was born her family moved to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs. She has three brothers, Edgar, Jacob and Lloyd and a younger sister Ruth. Both her parents have passed away. Rahab attended Yuendumu School before going to Yirara College, a boarding college in Alice Springs. She returned to Yuendumu after she finished school and worked in the local shop. She later married ‘a white fella”, Warren Freeman. She has three sons, her two eldest sons are married and her youngest son loves footie and plays for Yuendumu Magpies. Her three sons are from a previous relationship. She has one daughter from her marriage to Warren. She also has three grandchildren. Rahab has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yurndumu, since 2007. She mainly paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which related directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and mother and their parents before them for millennia. Rahab uses traditional iconography and likes to use Aboriginal colours, that is red, black and yellow, while developing a modern individualist style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa. When Rahab is not painting she loves to cook and clean her house.

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