Acrylic on Linen

107cmx76cm

Natasha learnt to paint at school as well as watching her family paint. She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 1999. She paints her Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. She loves colour and uses an unrestricted palette to depict her traditional iconography, at the same time developing a modern individualist style, using pattern and design in a variety of contexts.

The place depicted in this painting, Ngama, is located south of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. This Dreaming belongs to Nakamarra/Napurrurla women and Jakamarra/Jupurrurla men. This story describes the journey of Yarripiri, an ancestral ‘warna’ (snake). He travelled from Wirnparrku near Mt. Liebig to Yimparlu, and continued its way through the territories of Ngapanangka-jarra, Warlajirryi, Kurnmundu, Yinyirrinyi on to Ngama. Later Yarripiri travelled further north via Mijirlparnta (Mission Creek) and right through to the top end of Australia.Yarripiri was very sad as his family had left him behind at Wirnparrku. He was blind and crippled but he was determined to follow and search them out. He had to be carried. This was the job undertaken by the ‘kurdungurlu’ (ceremonial police) of the Dreaming: the Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men. Where Yarripiri’s tail slumped and touched the ground creeks were formed, such as Mijirlparnta, west of Yuendumu. Yarripiri tracks and paths are often represented by arc shapes or curved lines depicted across the canvas.