Ngapa Dreaming, 2005

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

121 x 46 cm

$3,000

Provenance: Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu, NT, Cat No. 1502/05 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Ngapa Jukurrpa - Water Dreaming, August 2009 Rainmaker Rhythms, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, August 2006
Artwork story: The site depicted in this painting is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. In the usually dry creek bed are the water soakages or naturally occurring wells. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. Shorty Jangala Robertson was born at Jila (Chilla Well), a large soakage and claypan north-west of Yuendumu. He lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with his parents, older brother and extended Warlpiri family. Shorty's childhood memories consist of stories associated with the Coniston massacre of Aboriginal people and the shooting of families at Wantaparri, which is close to Jila. Shorty had virtually no contact with white fellas during his youth but remembers leaving Jila for Mt Theo 'to hide' from being shot. After his father died at Mt Theo, Shorty moved with his mother to Mt Doreen Station, and subsequently to the new settlement of Yuendumu. Shorty did not begin painting his fresh, vigorous works until the late 1990s. His use of colour to paint and interpret his dreamings of Ngapa (Water), Watiyawarnu (Acacia), Yankirri (Emu) and Pamapardu (Flying Ant) oozed vitality, yet upheld Warlpiri tradition and culture.

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c.1925 / c.1930 – 2014

synthetic polymer paint on Belgian linen

121 x 46 cm

$3,000

Provenance: Warlukurlangu Artists, Yuendumu, NT, Cat No. 1502/05 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Ngapa Jukurrpa - Water Dreaming, August 2009 Rainmaker Rhythms, Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW, August 2006
Artwork story: The site depicted in this painting is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. In the usually dry creek bed are the water soakages or naturally occurring wells. Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. Shorty Jangala Robertson was born at Jila (Chilla Well), a large soakage and claypan north-west of Yuendumu. He lived a nomadic hunter-gatherer lifestyle with his parents, older brother and extended Warlpiri family. Shorty's childhood memories consist of stories associated with the Coniston massacre of Aboriginal people and the shooting of families at Wantaparri, which is close to Jila. Shorty had virtually no contact with white fellas during his youth but remembers leaving Jila for Mt Theo 'to hide' from being shot. After his father died at Mt Theo, Shorty moved with his mother to Mt Doreen Station, and subsequently to the new settlement of Yuendumu. Shorty did not begin painting his fresh, vigorous works until the late 1990s. His use of colour to paint and interpret his dreamings of Ngapa (Water), Watiyawarnu (Acacia), Yankirri (Emu) and Pamapardu (Flying Ant) oozed vitality, yet upheld Warlpiri tradition and culture.