Lyn Nungurrayi Sims / Bush Tomato Dreaming (3170-21)

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

Lyn Nungarrayi Sims was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (Dec) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (Dec), two of the founding artists of Warlukurlangu Art Centre. Lynn attended the local school in Yuendumu. She is married and has one son. Over the years she has worked for the Yuendumu Old People’s Program, the local Council and Centrelink office.

She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Art Centre since 1987. She paints the Jukurrpa stories which have been passed down to her by her father and his fathers before him for millennia. These stories relate directly to the features and animals that are found in her traditional country.

When Lyn’s not painting she likes to spend time with her grand-children playing and passing on her Jukurrpa stories.

The Wanakiji Jukurrpa (bush tomato Dreaming) travels through Yaturlu (near Mount Theo, north of Yuendumu). “Wanakiji” grows in open spinifex country and is a small, prickly plant with purple flowers that bears green fleshy fruit with many small black seeds.

After collecting the fruit the seeds are removed with a small wooden spoon called ‘kajalarra’. The fruit then can be eaten raw or threaded onto skewers called ‘turlturrpa’ and then cooked over a fire. ‘Wanakiji’ can also be skewered and left to dry. When they are prepared in this way it is called ‘turlturrpa’ and the fruit can be kept for a long time.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements.