Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) painting by Geraldine Nangala Gallagher, 2015
Bay Gallery Home was slightly perplexed when academic John Gardiner contacted us for permission to use our Emu Dreaming tile as an example for his work on Quasicrystals in the NeuroQuantology journal.
Initially Gardiner told me the paper concerned aperiodic tiles. What on earth is an aperiodic tile? After a quick online search it turns out it is not a non-periodic tile. That cleared up everything! In any case he went on to consider the tile design in terms of quasicrystals and the origin of life.
When John sent the paper we were quite touched by the inclusion of the importance of Aboriginals connection to Country, “The cultures revere the state of things, as they are found, and how this leads to survival. Geology uses fractals to describe landscapes and Australian Aboriginal culture is at the point where initiates ARE the fractal landscape, weather and other living beings. For something to exist within Aboriginal culture it must be present in the physical or metaphysical world. This encompasses both contemporary and more traditional Dreamings.”
Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) sits in a place 50km north of Yuendumu called Ngarlikurngu. The Jukurrpa story belongs to Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men within the Walpiri people of the Central Desert of Australia.
The paper is a fascinating study of possible events leading to the origins of life, involving “crystals being the substrate for the formation of the first life”.
To read the full paper please click on the button below.