Kershini Napaljarri Collins / Budgerigar Dreaming (4637-24)

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

Kershini Napaljarri Collins was born on 19 July 1996 in Alice Springs, NT. She currently lives and paints in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km northwest of Alice Springs. When both her parents died early in her life, she and her siblings went to live with Alma Nangala Robertson her Auntie who also paints at the Art Centre.

Kershini attended school in Yuendumu, and would sometimes paint at the art centre during her school holidays. She began painting regularly with Warlukurlangu Artists in 2014. Kershini has a good grounding in painting, watching her family paint and listening to her stories since she was a child. She paints Ngatijirri Jukurrpa (Budgerigar Dreaming) and Marlu Jukurrpa (Kangaroo Dreaming). These Dreamings are located at Jila (Chilla Well), a claypan to the west of Yuendumu. These Dreamings were passed on to Kershini from her father and Aunties.

Kershini uses traditional iconography, while developing a modern individualistic style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa. When she is not painting at the Art Centre, she likes to go hunting or watching footy matches.

The Jukurrpa site shown in this painting for Ngatijirri (budgerigar) is at Yangarnmpi, south of Yuendumu. ‘Ngatijirri’ are small, bright green birds native to central Australia which are common around the Yuendumu area, especially after the summer rains. Men would hunt for ‘ngatijirri’ nests, robbing them of eggs and juvenile birds, which are both considered delicacies. The men would also go out hunting for adult, flying ‘ngatijirri’, which they would kill by swinging branches, killing sticks or ‘karli’ (boomerangs) to hit the birds in flight.

The ‘ngatijirri’ travelled to Yangarnmpi from Patirlirri, near Willowra to the east of Yuendumu and travelled further on to Marngangi, north/west of Mount Dennison and west of Yuendumu. Each time the flock of ancestral ‘ngatijirri’ lands, they perform ceremonies, singing and dancing as they fly and roost in the trees. The sites of these ceremonies are depicted in this painting as concentric circles, while cross-like shapes depict the footprints of the birds on the ground and give an indication of the large flocks of ‘ngatijirri’ that can be found near Yangarnmpi and other sites close to Yuendumu.