CONTEMPORARY ART STOCKROOM Selina Napanangka Fisher

Selina Napanganka Fisher was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2006. Selina tells the story of when she was little she would sit and watch her grandma paint and she would teach her many Jukurrpa stories. She paints her fathers Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) and Karnta Jukurrpa (Womens Dreaming).

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.

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Pikilya Jukurrpa #2998/21ny 2021
acrylic on canvas, stretched
91cm x 107cm
$1,800 AUD