Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker, Jitilypuru Jukurrpa, 91x61cm

The Jitilypuru Jukurrpa (Red Mallee Flower Dreaming) belongs to the Alyawarra, Anmatyerr, Eastern Arrente, Pintupi and Warlpiri people. Red Mallee (Eucalyptus pachyphylla), belonging to the Myrtaceae Family, grow with spinifex on sandplains or in shallow limestone. It grows up to 4-6 m high and produces masses of creamy yellow flowers which are a source of much of the honey produced in inland regions. When walking near a red mallee laden with flowers you can smell the honey as you walk by. In very dry times Aboriginal people harvested water from the roots of this species. The seeds of this plant are also said to be eaten by Pintupi, and an edible lerp scale sometimes found on the leaves is considered to be sweeter and better than that found on any other gum. The large nuts are often used for ornamental purposes and by children for spinning tops. The Red Mallee Flower Dreaming is also related to honey dreaming. The bees take the honey from the flower to a tree and make “sugar bags”. Ancestors have been eating the honey for a very long, long, time. People still go out on long walks looking for “sugar bags”. They chop the branches down and put the sugar bags into a billy can. The Red Mallee is a tolerant tree and new shoots quickly sprout when branches are broken or burnt. After members of the family have gathered lots and lots of sugar bags they take them back to their community and share the honey with other families.

Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to the Utopia Homelands which are located 220 km northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Sylvaria is the granddaughter to Topsy Pwerle Jones and the niece of Joycelyn Petyarre Jones, both well-known artists from Utopia. Sylvaria use to watch her grandmother paint when she was very young and listen to her Grandmother’s Jukurrpa or Dreaming stories. Sylvaria grew up in Utopia and attended her local school, completing her schooling at the age of 16. When she finished school she worked in child care for her local community. Sylvaria is now living in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 kms from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory with her husband Sebastian Japananga Williams and their son. 

Sylvaria began working with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2014.  She paints her grandmother’s Jukurrpa (Red Mallee Flower Dreaming), dreamings which have been passed down over the millennia. Sylvaria’s feathery style of painting is influenced by the style of her aunties and grandmother.

When Sylvaria is not painting or looking after her young son she likes to go hunting with her family.