111582154893
Nganyangu Kuwutjarra
The term Jukurrpa is often translated in English as the ‘dreaming’, or ‘dreamtime’. It refers generally to the period in which the world was created by ancestral beings, who assumed both human and nonhuman forms. These beings shaped what had been a formless landscape; creating waters, plants, animals, and people. At the same time they provided cultural protocols for the people they created, as well as rules for interacting with the natural environment. At their journey’s end, the ancestral beings transformed themselves into important waters, hills, rocks, and even constellations.
This painting depicts a Warnman Jukurrpa story of two opposing brothers that were travelling around together near Parnngurr, told to Cyril by his Grandmother, Bugai Whyoulter, and passed on through her family. The youngest brother is a kirriji (single person) who was jealous of his older and more powerful brother. The younger brother coveted his brother’s two wives. The son of the older brother born to his younger wife became an even more powerful maparn (magic) man than his father, in possession of great influence over the supernatural.
The brothers travelled from Parnngurr around the Karlamilyi River (Rudall River) Region, to Warntili, and then back to Parnngurr through Yulpu. While they were travelling one of the brothers stopped on a hill not far from Parnngurr, where he saw Yurla in pursuit of the Jakulyukulyu (Minyipuru, Seven Sisters). The elder brother stopped in Nyukurwarta, north east of Parnngurr and between two hills.
