Biddy Napaljarri White / Budgerigar Dreaming (1A)

Artwork is accompanied by Warlukurlangu Artists (Yuendumu) Art Centre Certificate of Authenticity/Provenance

Biddy Napaljarri White was born at Willowra in c1949, and moved to Yuendumu as a young girl, where she went to school. Yuendumu is a remote Aboriginal community located 290kms north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Biddy has one brother who lives at Ti-Tree and three sisters who live in Alice Springs. She has done a variety of jobs including working at the Council office, cutting wood in the bush, and she still works with the Old People’s Program, the Women’s Centre and the Night Patrol. She has also worked with the Centre for Appropriate Technology (CATT), making tucker boxes and other items. Biddy visits men in jail and looks after school children on camp.

Biddy is a widow, she has one daughter, one grandson and one great granddaughter who all live in Yuendumu.

She began painting at Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Association in 1987. Biddy paints budgerigar dreaming passed down from her father and grandfather, based on country around Willowra, which she still visits from time to time to see family members there. She has been exhibiting in Group Exhibitions since 1990.

The Jukurrpa site shown in this painting for Ngatijirri (budgerigar) is at Yangarnmpi, south of Yuendumu. ‘Ngatijirri’ are small, bright green birds native to central Australia which are common around the Yuendumu area, especially after the summer rains. Men would hunt for ‘ngatijirri’ nests, robbing them of eggs and juvenile birds, which are both considered delicacies. The men would also go out hunting for adult, flying ‘ngatijirri’. The ‘ngatijirri’ travelled to Yangarnmpi from Patirlirri, near Willowra to the east of Yuendumu and travelled further on to Marngangi, north/west of Mount Dennison and west of Yuendumu. Each time the flock of ancestral ‘ngatijirri’ lands, they perform ceremonies, singing and dancing as they fly and roost in the trees. After good rains ‘ngatijirri’ can successfully breed several times, resulting in an explosion of the population in a short time. Custodians for the Ngatijirri Jukurrpa are Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women and Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men.