Janet Long Nakamarra / Ngapa (Water) Dreaming (19708)

Born in 1960 at Anninie, in her people’s traditional Warntaparri Country, Janet Long Nakamarra grew up living a traditional lifestyle. Her Aunts, May and Molly Napurulla, taught her the ceremonial body paint designs associated with her Warntaparri Dreaming.

Through dedication and study, Janet became a Linguist, later working as a literacy teacher at Willowra School, where she helped develop bilingual materials for the community. Her linguistic skills gained national respect, and when Vivien Johnson began writing “Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert”, she sought Janet’s expertise to cross‑check terminology and cultural accuracy.
Janet began painting in 1989, initially working on small boards when canvas and paint first became available to local artists at Willowra. Encouraged and mentored by her brother, renowned artist Malcolm Jagamarra, she embraced acrylic painting as a powerful way to share her culture with the wider world.

Her paintings draw directly on her linguistic knowledge, translating complex stories, histories, and cultural teachings into detailed, narrative‑rich artworks. Each painting incorporates fine elements that collectively reveal a broader story, often accompanied by her written explanations that help viewers understand the mythology and Law of her people.

Her distinctive style and finely layered storytelling have earned her significant recognition both nationally and internationally.

Selected Exhibitions

• 2005 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney — Solo Exhibition
• 2002 Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum, Köln
• 2002 Brit’s Art & Promotion “Jinta Jungu”
• 2002 Museum für Naturkunde, Zentralinstitut der Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Berlin
• 2002 Brit’s Art & Promotion Leere & Vision, Herford
• 2002 Brit’s Art & Promotion Art – Communication, Vodafone, Ratingen
• 2002 TOAAC Gallery, Brisbane, QLD — Solo Exhibition
• 2001 Landesmuseum für Natur und Mensch, Oldenburg
• 2001 Nacht der Museen, Brit’s Art & Promotion, Quellenhof-Dorint Hotel, Aachen
• 2001 EU–Australia Coal Conference — Brit’s Art & Promotion
• 1999 Jinta Desert Art Gallery, Sydney
• 1999 Solo Exhibition, Chifley Square, Sydney
• 1999 Indigenous Art of the Dreamtime, United Nations, New York, USA
• 1999 Throckmorton Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA
• 1999 Galleria Gondwana Exhibition, Rome, Italy
• 1999 United Nations, New York, USA
• 1998 Parker Gallery, Sydney
• 1998 “Out of Australia”, Lui Hai‑Su National Art Museum, Shanghai, China
• 1998 Aboriginal Art Galleries, Melbourne
• 1998 Aboriginal Desert Art Gallery, Alice Springs
• 1995 Civic Centre, Wagga Wagga, NSW
• 1994 Amsterdam, Holland

Selected Collections

• Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
• National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
• Australian Embassy, New York
• Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia
• The Kelton Foundation, Santa Monica, USA

Janet’s Ngapa (Water) Dreaming paintings depict the flowing waters of Warntaparri, a place where her people performed the Rain Dance Ceremony. The long, rhythmic lines in her work represent the movement of water as it travels across Country — gathering, branching, and filling the land.

During the ceremony, the people painted ceremonial designs on their bodies in white ochre, then sat together and sang the songs of the hailstone. Their voices carried across the Country, calling up the great thunderclouds that began to build on the horizon. As the clouds grew darker and heavier, everyone knew a powerful rain was coming. They gathered their families and moved into shelter, waiting for the first heavy drops.

When the rain finally arrived, it was strong and relentless. It flooded across the land, carving out rivers, billabongs, lagoons, streams, and soakages. These waters sustained the people, animals, and Country.

After the flooding rains receded, the community lived beside each soakage for as long as the water remained — often for a month at a time — before travelling to the next one. During the dry season, when water was scarce, they would dig deep holes in the ground and cover them with leaves and branches. By the next morning, fresh, clean drinking water would gather inside — a vital source of life.

Janet’s fine dot work, circular forms, and flowing patterns record this cycle of ceremony, rain, movement, and survival — a visual map of how her ancestors lived with the land, followed the water, and honoured the power of the storms.