Dorothy Napurrurla Dickson / Native Seed Dreaming (2582-22)

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

Dorothy Napurrurla Dickson was born in 1965 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She grew up in Yuendumu with her grandmother and her siblings. Dorothy attended the local school before going to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. After graduation Dorothy returned to Yuendumu and worked at the Outback Store.

Dorothy Napurrurla has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2010. She paints her father’s and Grandpa’s Lukarrara Jukurrpa (Desert Fringe-rush Seed Dreaming), stories that relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her family and their ancestors before them for millennia. As an artist, Dorothy likes painting her ngurlu (bushseed).

When Dorothy is not painting, she enjoys spending time with her three grown-up children and hunting for Ngarlkirdi (Witchetty Grubs) and Yurrampi (Honey Ants) with her friends.

The Jukurrpa or dreaming is connected with a place called Jaralypari which situated north of Yuendumu. Lukarrara is a species of Fimbristylis, a grass that produces tasty seeds in the winter time. The seeds are customarily ground on a large stone with a smaller stone to make flour to be used to make bush tucker. This flour is blended with water to make small seed cakes.