Curtis Jampijinpa Fry / Water Dreaming (1B)

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

Curtis Jampijinpa Fry was born in Yuendumu in 1964. His parents passed away when he was young. The late senior artist and lawman Shorty Jangala Robertson ‘brought him up’ and his sister Helen Nampijinpa Robertson and Thomas Jangala Rice are his family now. They are well-known artists working with Warlukurlangu Artists. Curtis attended the local Yuendumu school.

After leaving school Curtis joined a band and later joined the Broadcasting team for PAW Media, one of eight remote Indigenous Media Organisations in Australia. Curtis is a legendary musician and long-time broadcaster at PAW. His daily Curtis Fry Show has a loyal fan base and showcases local Yapa music including classics from Curtis “Spunky Monkey” Fry himself. Curtis is a unique radio talent. He has undertaken media training in Darwin as well as locally. He can be seen in action on the PAW Radio recruitment video of 2011.

Curtis has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists since 2002. He paints his father’s Jukurrpa stories, stories which relate directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to him by his father and his father’s father before them for millennia. Curtis uses traditional designs and icons with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of his traditional culture.

The country associated with this ‘ngapa Jukurrpa’ (water Dreaming) is Mikanji, a watercourse west of Yuendumu that is usually dry. There are ‘mulju’ (soakages) in this creek bed. The ‘kirda’ (owners) of this Dreaming site are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men. Mikanji is an important water Dreaming site, and features in at least three different water Dreaming tracks.

The water Dreaming travelled from Puyurru, northwest of Yuendumu, to a ‘mulju’ (soakage) in the Mikanji creek. It unleashed a huge storm there. Two old blind women of the Nampijinpa skin group were sitting by the side of the soakages. As the two women strained their eyes to see the sky, tears formed in their eyes, creating the rain. Their spirits can still be seen at Mikanji in the form of two ‘ngapiri’ (river red gums) growing near the soakage.

Motifs frequently used to depict this story include concentric circles representing ‘mulju'(water soakages), short bars depicting ‘mangkurdu'(clouds) and U shapes depicing the ‘kirda’ (owners) of the Dreaming.