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Wardapi Jukurrpa

‘This painting is about the way women hunt Wardapi – that sand goanna. He digs holes in the dunes, makes his nest deep inside. Many of the holes all join up. Women hunt Wardapi in the dunes by digging out the holes. Sometimes cover one, and Wardapi runs out other one. Need to hunt him together. Find all the holes. Dig them at the same time. Someone going to get him that way.’

The Wardapi Jukurrpa [Varanus Gouldii Goanna] belongs to the Spencer Sisters. It comes from Yarripilangku [aka Yinyiripalangu], south-west of Yuendumu. A group of Warlpiri Karnta [women] are sitting down in a circle when a Japangardi Wati [man] from Puturlu [Mt Theo], called Wamaru came upon them. He wants to take one of them, named Yurlkurinyi, of Nungarrayi skin, which is the wrong skin for him. He takes the Nungarrayi woman up a hill, where they make love. In response, the earth on top of the hill turns to Ngunjungunju [white ochre], and yellow and red ochre. The yellow is for Karnta and the red for Wati. The ochre is used by Warlpiri people for love magic and ceremonial decoration. The Wati turns all the Karnta and himself into Wardapi, aka Varanus Gouldii goannas. This Jukurrpa belongs to the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Nungarrayi /Jungarrayi subsections, and the Japanangka/Napanangka, Japangardi/Napangardi subsections of Puturlu. The women are often represented by ‘U’ shapes. Concentric circles may illustrate Wardapi holes, or their droppings left behind them, and Wardapi tracks are usually represented by ‘W’ shapes and wavy lines.

Categories: Tangentyere Artists

Name: April Spencer Napaltjarri

Language: Warlpiri

Biography:

Born in Yuendumu in 1966, April has been painting for most of her adult life. Within the Tangentyere Artists studio, April also acts as a translator for her profoundly deaf elder sister, Isobelle.

April learned to paint from her brother, famous painter and NT police officer, Andrew Spencer Japaljarri. (1954 - 2015). The sisters' father, Walpajirri Jungarrayi, also called Jimmy Spencer, was a senior Law Man for Yarripilangu Karrinyarra, and early Yuendumu artist.

Apart from the Wardapi [Goanna] Tjukurrpa that travels a long way south from Yarri pirlangku, her father’s country, she also paints Pamapardu [Flying Ant] Tjukurrpa, which is about the Flying Ant emerging after rain, from her mother’s country near Nyirripi. Like all her family, April paints in the classic Warlpiri style.

April's husband, Smithy Zimran Tjampitinpa (1949-2000) was a community leader in Kintore, who needed dialysis but did not want to live off Country. He led the push for remote dialysis and is remembered as a founding father of the Purple House.

Before the Purple House was established Pintupi people from the Western Desert of Central Australia were forced to leave their Country and families to seek treatment for end-stage renal failure in Alice Springs or Darwin. Far from home, they suffered loneliness and hardship, and weren’t around to pass on cultural knowledge in their communities.

In 2000 Papunya Tula artists from Walungurru and Kiwirrikurra developed four extraordinary collaborative paintings which were auctioned at the Art Gallery of New South Wales on 11 November 2000, which along with a series of other work, raised over $1 million. That money started the Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, now called Purple House, which developed a new model of care based around family, Country and compassion.

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