Acrylic on Linen

Lizzie Nungarrayi Spencer was born in 1985 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of Caroline Nakamarra Gibson and the grand-daughter of Nancy Napanangka Gibson, both artists. Lizzie was brought up in Nyirripi, an Aboriginal community located a further 150 kms west-south-west of Yuendumu. She attended the local Primary School then moved to Alice Springs where she attended Yirara College, of the Finke River Mission, a boarding school for Indigenous students 12 years and older from remote communities. When she completed her schooling she returned to Nyirripi and worked at the Nyirripi Shop. She is married and has two boys who attend the local school.  Lizzie is furthering her studies and will be working for the school soon.

Lizzie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2009. Warlukurlangu makes regular visits to Nyirripi to drop off canvas, paint and brushes for the artists and to collect finished artwork. Lizzie paints her father’s Wardapi (Goanna) Jukurrpa from an area to the east of Yuendumu called Yarumayi, and her Grandmother’s Mina Mina Jukurrpa, a place far to the west of Yuendumu. Lizzie likes painting, ït’s good to do painting…its very relaxing”.                  

When Lizzie is not painting or looking after her two boys she likes to play basketball or go hunting for goanna with her family.

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.