Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson / Water Dreaming – Mikanji (1A)

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

Maureen Hudson Nampitjinpa was born c. 1952 in the bush at Mt. Allan cattle station 50 KM. E of Yuendumu This cattle station is called Yuelamu and is aboriginal owned and run today. Her country is Mt. Wedge and Mt. Allen (Kerrinyarra). She attended school at Yuendumu, returing to Mt. Allan where she worked as a teacher’s aid for three years. She has four children, her daughter Jillian following, in her mother’s footsteps, is an exciting young artist.

Maureen commenced her painting career in 1981; her talent was immediately recognised and she was encouraged by the senior artists of the region and in particular her older sister, Jean Hudson Nampitjinpa. Maureen is well educated, and whilst being fully aware of the demands of the contemporary art movement, she paints her traditional dreamings very often in modern imagery which has made her a much sought after and extremely popular artist.

Her Dreamings are associated with Warlukalongu, her father’s and grandfather’s country and depict the Emu and Fire Dreamings of her paternal relatives, together with the Women’s Ceremony from her mother’s country. In 1990 she travelled to Vanuatu for the Art Dock show, the first international art exhibition to be held in Vanuatu.

She now resides in Alice Springs with frequent visits to capital cities for painting and exhibitions. Maureen has a distinctive style and at times participates in collaborative works with selected artists. One such collaborative work, Seven Sisters Dreaming, with Alice Springs artist Maggie Urban was exhibited and toured with the “Commitments” exhibition in 1993 through the Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane.

In 2005 Maureen’s works were including in “Celebrating the Possum Family – Possum Family Retrospective” at Australian Dreaming Art, Fitzroy, Melbourne. This exhibition included works by the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and other members of his talented family and associates, who are carrying on his wonderful legacy. Along with Clifford and Maureen they include Gabrielle Possum Nungurrayi, Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, Eunice Napangardi, Pansy Napangardi, Jean Hudson Nampajinpa, Cassidy Possum Tjapaltjarri and Heath Ramzan, Clifford’s son-in-law.

Maureen Hudson has become an investable artist whose works are included in National and International Private and Corporate Collections.

Selected Exhibitions

1990
• Vanuatu Art Dock Show, “Central Australian Art”, Art Do, Noumea

1992
• “Sand Paintings of the Central Desert”, Centre for Aboriginal Art, Alice Springs

1993
• “Commitments”, Museum of Modern Art, Brisbane

1994
• “Dreamings”, Tribal Art Gallery, Flinders Lane, Melbourne (joint exhibition with Clifford Possum)

1995
• “Dreamings of the Desert”, Uluru Gallery, Ayers Rock

1997
• “Desert Dreams”, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute, Adelaide
• “Women Dreaming”, Gallery 47, London, UK
• “Songlines”, Boulder, Colorado, USA

2005
• Celebrating the Possum Family (see above)
• Japingka Gallery, Perth
• Australian Dreaming Art, Melbourne

1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
• Mulgara Gallery, Yulara (artist in residence)

Selected Collections
• Tribal Art Gallery, Melbourne
• Artbank, Sydney
• Museum of Modern Art, Brisbane

The country associated with this Ngapa Jukurrpa (water Dreaming) is Mikanji, a watercourse that is usually dry, west of Yuendumu. In this creek bed there are ‘mulju’ (soakages). The custodians of this Jukurrpa are men of the Jangala/Jampijinpa skin groups, and women of the Nangala/Nampijinpa skin groups.
The Dreaming travelled from Puyurru, northwest of Yuendumu to a ‘mulju’ in the Mikanji creek. By the side of the soakages two old blind women of the Nampijinpa skin group were sitting. A rain ancestor travelled to Mikanji from Puyurru and unleashed a huge storm. As the two women strained their eyes to see the sky, tears formed in their eyes, creating the rain. Their spirits can still be seen at Mikanji in the form of two ‘ngapiri’ (river red gums) growing near the soakage. Motifs frequently used to depict this story include concentric circles representing ‘mulju’ (water soakages) and short bars depicting ‘mangkurdu’ (cumulus & stratocumulus clouds).