Kasey-Anne Nampijinpa Gallagher / Water Dreaming – Pirlinyarnu (3458-19ny)

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

Kasey-Anne Nampijinpa Gallagher was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, originally an outstation of Yuendumu but now a small community, 440 km west of Alice Springs in Northern Territory. She is the daughter of Sabrina Nungarrayi Gibson and Duncan Gallagher and has one sister and two brothers. Her grandmother is Mary Napangardi Gallagher, an established artist with Warlukurlangu Artists. Kasey-Anne went to the local Nyirripi school, followed by Kormilda College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. When she returned to Nyirripi she worked for the Council Office.

Kasey-Anne began painting with Warlukurlangu in 2014. When she was growing up she watched her grandma paint and listened to her stories. “I really wanted to paint . . . I am happy painting.” She paints her father’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), stories that have been passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. She uses traditional shapes and an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture. When she is not painting, she likes to visit family in Yuendumu, go hunting with family and friends and play softball.

The site depicted in this painting is Pirlinyarnu (Mt. Farewell), about 165 km west of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. The ‘kirda’ (owners) for the water Dreaming site at Pirlinyarnu are Nangala/Nampijinpa women and Jangala/Jampijinpa men.

Two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm that collided with another storm from Wapurtali at Mirawarri. A ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon) carried the storm further west from Mirawarri. The two storms travelled across the country from Karlipirnpa, a ceremonial site for the water Dreaming near Kintore that is owned by members of the Napaljarri/Japaljarri and Napanangka/Japanangka subsections. Along the way the storms passed through Juntiparnta, a site that is owned by Jampijinpa men. The storm eventually became too heavy for the falcon. It dropped the water at Pirlinyarnu, where it formed an enormous ‘maluri’ (claypan). A ‘mulju’ (soakage) exists in this place today. Whenever it rains today, hundreds of ‘ngapangarlpa’ (bush ducks) still flock to Pirlinyarnu.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is used to represent the ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming), associated sites, and other elements. In many paintings of this Dreaming, short dashes are often used to represent ‘mangkurdu’ (cumulus & stratocumulus clouds), and longer, flowing lines represent ‘ngawarra’ (flood waters). Small circles are used to depict ‘mulju’ (soakages) and river beds.