Yvonne Nangala Gallagher, Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) - Ngarlikurlangu, 40x40cm

• Aboriginal Artist - Yvonne Nangala Gallagher
• Community - Yuendumu
• Aboriginal Art Centre - Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation  
• Catalogue number - 2796/22
• Materials - Acrylic on pre-stretched canvas  
• Size(cm) - H40 W40 D3.5  
• Postage variants - Artwork posted stretched and ready to hang
• Orientation - Painted from all sides and OK to hang as wished

This particular site of the Yankirri Jukurrpa, (emu Dreaming [Dromaius novaehollandiae]) is at Ngarlikurlangu, north of Yuendumu. The ‘yankirri’ travelled to the rockhole at Ngarlikurlangu to find water. This Jukurrpa story belongs to Jangala/Jampijinpa men and Nangala/Nampijinpa women. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. Emus are usually represented by their ‘wirliya’ (footprints), arrow-like shapes that show them walking around Ngarlikurlangu eating ‘yakajirri’ (bush raisin [Solanum centrale]). In the time of the Jukurrpa there was a fight at Ngarlikiurlangu between a ‘yankirri’ ancestor and Wardilyka (Australian bustard [Ardeotis australis]) ancestors over sharing the ‘yakajirri’. There is also a dance for this Jukurrpa that is performed during initiation ceremonies.

Yvonne Nangala Gallagher was born 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 grew up in Yuendumu and attended the local high school. She is the daughter of Coral Napangardi Gallagher, an active and highly respected senior woman in the Yuendumu community. Yvonne is married and has three children so most of her time is spent looking after her young kids. She has been painting with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2000, depicting her father’s Jukurrpa stories that have been passed down to her from her father and his father’s father before him for millennia. These stories relate directly to her traditional country. She has also worked with the Yuendumu Old People's program that delivers meals to elderly people in the community and sometimes works with the local childcare. She also occasionally goes out hunting for traditional foods in the country around Yuendumu.