URSULA NAPANGARDI HUDSON - PIKILYI JUKURRPA (VAUGHAN SPRINGS DREAMING)
URSULA NAPANGARDI HUDSON
PIKILYI JUKURRPA (VAUGHAN SPRINGS DREAMING), 2024
30 x 30 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
REGION
Yuendumu, NT
PROVENANCE
Warlukurlangu Artists, NT
Cooee Art Leven, NSW
STORY
Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station. Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the home of two rainbow serpents, ancestral heroes who lived together as man and wife. The woman ‘rainbow serpent’ was of the Napanangka skin group, the man was a Japangardi. This was a taboo relationship contrary to Warlpiri religious law. Women of the Napanangka and Napangardi subsection sat by the two
serpents, picking lice off them. For this service, the two serpents allowed the women to take water from the springs at Pikilyi. This was because the serpents were the ‘kirda’, or ceremonial owners, for that country. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today. This Dreamings belongs to the women and men of the Japanangka/Napanangka and Japangardi/Napangardi skin groups.
ARTIST PROFILE
