Acrylic on Linen

The Warlpiri Water Dreaming story, Ngapa Jukurrpa, focuses on sites such Pirlinyanu, which is about 65 km west of Yuendumu, and Puyurru, north west of Yuendumu. It relates how two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Warpurtali. The two storms travelled across the country from Karlipinpa near Kintore. A Kirrkarlanji (brown falcon, Falco berigora) carried the storm further west, until it dropped it at Pirlinyarnu forming an enormous maliri (lake). Whenever it rains, hundreds of Ngapangarlpa (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu. A mulju (soakage) exists in this place today. At Puyurru, Shorty Jangala Robertson’s birthplace, the falcon dug up a warnayarra (rainbow serpent). The serpent carried water with it to create another large lake.

The Kirda (custodians) for this Jukurrpa are Jangala and Jampijinpa men and Nangala and Nampijinpa women.