Ingrid Napangardi Williams / Goanna Dreaming – Yarripilangu (1400-25)

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

Ingrid Napangardi Williams was born in 1976 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 is the daughter of Pamela Napururrla Walker and Warren Japanangka Williams and has one sister, Bernadette Williams. She attended the local primary school then Yirara College, a boarding school in Alice Springs. When Ingrid finished school she returned home, where she worked at the school, helping with the little ones, then the Old People’s home and later the School of Nutrition. Ingrid is married to Steven Jakamarra Oldfield.

Ingrid began painting with the Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1999. She paints her father’s Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Snake Vine Dreaming) – Purturlu; her mother’s Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming) and sometimes her father’s Wardapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming) – Yarripurlangu. These ‘dreamings’ relate directly to her land, stories that have been passed down through the generations for millennia. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When she is not painting she likes to go hunting for bush tucker with her family.

Goanna Dreaming comes from Yarripilangku, south-west of Yuendumu. It tells the story of a group of Karnta (Warlpiri women) that were sitting down in a circle. A man from Mt. Theo, of the Japangardi skin group named Wamaru, came up to the women. He wanted to take a girl of the wrong skin, a Nungarrayi. He took the Nungarrayi woman, named Yurlkurinyi, and went up the hill where they made love. Then the earth turned to Ngunjungunju (ochre which is pictured here in the hills) and the man turned himself and all the ‘karnta’ (women) into ‘wardapi’ (goannas). The ochre is still found on top of the hill and is used today for love magic and for ceremonial decoration. This Jukurrpa belongs to the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Nungarrayi/Jungarrayi subsections. It also belongs to people from Mt Theo of the Japanangka/Napanangka, Japangardi/Napangardi subsections.