Janganpa Manu Napu, 2003

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

107 x 76 cm

Est. $3,000 – $5,000

Hammer $2,400

Provenance: Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Yuendumu, NT Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: "I like painting cause it's my Dreaming. Bush Carrot, Yam Dreaming. From my father and grandfather's side. I like to teach kids my Dreaming. I want everyone to know my Dreaming from all over the world. I know and they can know." So Bessie Nakamarra Sims spoke of the Jukurrpa that drove her practice across nearly three decades of painting for Warlukurlangu Artists, the Aboriginal owned and governed art centre at Yuendumu she had been part of since its establishment in 1985. The Janganpa — brush-tailed possum — travels all over Warlpiri country, nesting in the hollows of white gum trees. The story comes from Mawurrji, a large hill west of Yuendumu, where possum ancestors lived and hunted nightly, and where a Nampijinpa woman gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla possum man before fleeing with them. He pursued them and killed them at Mawurrji, their bodies now rocks in that place. E-shaped figures in paintings of this Dreaming represent possum tracks and concentric circles the trees and sites at Mawurrji. Sims was born in the bush in the 1930s and lived for many years before coming into contact with other people at Mount Doreen Station, west of Yuendumu. She was the wife of Paddy Japaljarri Sims, a renowned Warlukurlangu artist, but her own practice stood firmly in its own right.

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Sale 3 · Lot 105

c.1930s – 2012

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

107 x 76 cm

Est. $3,000 – $5,000

Hammer $2,400

Provenance: Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, Yuendumu, NT Private Collection, NSW
Artwork story: "I like painting cause it's my Dreaming. Bush Carrot, Yam Dreaming. From my father and grandfather's side. I like to teach kids my Dreaming. I want everyone to know my Dreaming from all over the world. I know and they can know." So Bessie Nakamarra Sims spoke of the Jukurrpa that drove her practice across nearly three decades of painting for Warlukurlangu Artists, the Aboriginal owned and governed art centre at Yuendumu she had been part of since its establishment in 1985. The Janganpa — brush-tailed possum — travels all over Warlpiri country, nesting in the hollows of white gum trees. The story comes from Mawurrji, a large hill west of Yuendumu, where possum ancestors lived and hunted nightly, and where a Nampijinpa woman gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla possum man before fleeing with them. He pursued them and killed them at Mawurrji, their bodies now rocks in that place. E-shaped figures in paintings of this Dreaming represent possum tracks and concentric circles the trees and sites at Mawurrji. Sims was born in the bush in the 1930s and lived for many years before coming into contact with other people at Mount Doreen Station, west of Yuendumu. She was the wife of Paddy Japaljarri Sims, a renowned Warlukurlangu artist, but her own practice stood firmly in its own right.