Deborah Napaljarri Wayne / Mt Doreen Dreaming (2A)

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

Deborah Napaljarri Wayne was born in 1976 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290km from Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Lee Nangala Gallagher-Wayne and the Granddaughter of Mary Napangardi Gallagher, both artists who paint with Warlukurlangu Artists art centre. She is married to Peterson Jakamarra Walker, an artist also.

Deborah went to Yarara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs and when she finished her schooling she returned to Yuendumu. Deborah was quite young when she first started painting for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporatio. She paints her grandmother’s Jukurrpa, Dreaming stories about the land, its features and animals. It was her grandmother that taught her to paint her Jukurrpa.

Deborah loves to paint and chooses black, red, grey, white, brown and green as her palette, colours that reflect the colour of the land.

Yarrungkanyi is the Mt Doreen area north west of Yuendumu. Dreamtime people lived in the area, digging for bush carrot. In doing so they created creeks that flows north to Jurlpungu. Women st in this area picking ‘ngamirdamirdi’ (lifesaver burr), which is a low-growing prickle. The women would thread the Ngamirdamirdi onto sticks to make hair combs. The women were travelling south to Yukurra.