Possum Dreamingby Valerie Napurrurla Morris

This painting depicts the Dreaming of the Brush-Tailed Possum and its travels all over Warlpiri country. Janganpa are nocturnal animals that often nest in the hallows of White Gum Trees. This story comes from a big hill called Mawurrji, west of Yuendumu and north of Pikilyi. A group of Janganpa ancestors resided there. Every night they would go out in search of food. Their hunting trips took them to Wirlki and Wanapirdi where they found Pamapardu. They journeyed on to Ngarlkirdipini looking for water. A Nampijinpa woman was living at Mawurrji with her two daughters. She gave her daughters to marriage to a Jupurrurla Janganpa but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla angrily pursued the women. He tracked them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place. Warlpiri people perform a young men's initiation ceremony, which involves the Janganpa Jukurrpa. The Janganpa Jukurrpa belongs to the Jakamarra/Jupurrurla men and Nakamarra/Napurrurla women. In Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa. Janganpa tracks are often represented as 'E' shaped figures and concentric circles are used to depict the trees in which Janganpa live and also the sites at Mawurrji.

Artist:Valerie Napurrurla Morris
Title:Possum Dreaming
ID:823/12NY
Medium:Acrylic on Belgian Linen
Size:46 x 30 cm
Region:Yuendumu, Central Australia

Artist

Valerie Napurrurla Morris was born in 1942 on Mount Doreen, an extensive cattle breeding station between Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia, and Nyirripi, 160 km further west. She went to the local school in Yuendumu and when she finished schooling she got a domestic job cleaning houses – “learning from white fella”! She married Mosquito Morris and has two children, a daughter and son. She has many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Valerie currently lives in Nyirripi but has family living in Yuendumu, Papunya and Kintore. Valerie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2007. She started painting when she saw her big sisters paintings. Her sister’s taught her her Dreaming. Valerie paints Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush-tail Possum Dreaming), and Mukakee Jukurrpa (Bush Plum Dreaming), Dreaming which relates directly to her land, its features and animals. When she’s not painting, she loves to go hunting and exercising chasing goannas and digging for honey ants and witchetty grubs.

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