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Wanampi / Watersnakes (Rainbow Serpent)

Two women were hunting carpet snakes for food. Two Rainbow Serpent (Wanampi) men are watching. Next morning the sisters again hunt for snakes and find two tails lurking from a hole in the ground. But they are the Wanampi tricking the women into following them. Each time the sisters grab for the tails, the snakes disappear underground, and they keep doing this all the way to a place called Piltardi, where the women finally see them in human form. The men make the sisters transform into Wanampi and take them as their wives. The two Wanampi couples live at Piltardi, and in the old days, people would go there in times of need and ask the spirit of the Wanampi to help them. The snake ancestors gave them cooked meat and made rain.

Categories: Ernabella Arts Inc.

Name: Derek Jungarrayi Thompson

Language: Pitjantjatjara

Community: Pukatja

Biography:

Derek Jungarrayi Thompson is the maternal grandson of Papunya Tula artist, Makinti Napanangka.

He came to work at Ernabella Arts in 2011 during the first men-only ceramic workshop. His figurative drawing work was already well advanced and he explained that he draws 'all the time at home.'

Derek is also an avid hunter. The translation of his drawings of the Pukatja landscape and animal life onto ceramics is quite unique and received immediate interest from collectors and curators.

In 2012 Derek undertook a residency at the Ceramic Workshop of the Australian National University, where he did pottery and printmaking. For many years his collaborative works with fellow Ernabella artist Ngunytjima Carroll were highly sought after and were selected as finalists in many awards including the NATSIAAs (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards). Ngunytjima threw tall pots onto which Derek applied his designs and drawings using the sgrafitto technique.

Derek and Ernabella artist Tjimpuna Williams were awarded an Australia Council grant in 2013 to undertake a big pot workshop in Jingdezhen, China. This body of large scale works was exhibited at Sabbia Gallery in Sydney and in Canberra as part of the Australian Ceramics Triennale. In 2017 Derek's work was exhibited at Harvey Arts in the USA.

Derek continues to be a key figure and leading artist in the ceramics studio, using clay to create beautifully detailed renditions of Country.

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