Maxine Nungarrayi Tex / Bush Banana Dreaming (1A)

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

Maxine Nungarrayi Tex was born in Alice Springs but has spent most of her time in Nyirripi and Yuendumu. Yuendumu is a remote Aboriginal community located 290km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia and Nyirripi is an Aboriginal community located a further 160km west of Yuendumu.

Maxine is the daughter of Peter Japaljarri Tex and Dulcie Napangardi Williams, who have painted with Warlukurlangu Artists and niece of Nora Napaljarri Nelson, who has also painted with Warlukurlangu Artists. Maxine attended the local school in Yuendumu and then Yirara College in Alice Springs. After she finished her schooling she returned to Nyirripi where she worked for a Child Care Centre.

In 2005 she moved to Yuendumu. She is married and has three children, two sons and a daughter. Maxine has been painting on and off since she left school. She paints her Karnta Jukurrpa stories, (Women’s Dreaming) but also likes to paint Wanakiji Jukurrpa (Bush Tomato Dreaming) and Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming) from her father’s side.

When she’s not painting or looking after her children she likes to play softball and hunt goanna around Nyirripi and Yuendumu.

The bush banana Dreaming is the story of a fruit bearing creeper that grows up trees and produces fruit with many fine, winged seeds inside. ‘Yapa’ (Warlpiri people) like to cook them in the coals, particularly the young juicy ones that we call Yangardurrku. ‘Yapa’ also eat the small white flowers and the leaves, which have a delicious nutty taste.

One story for this Jukurrpa is of two ancestral ‘karnta’ (women) of the Napangardi and Napanangka skin groups who travelled south from Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs, west of Yuendumu) through country near Karrinyarra (Mount Wedge) to the south and re-emerged at two ‘mulju’ (soakages) at Yinjirimardi, west of Yuendumu. They were accompanied by a man of the Japangardi skin group. He would sometimes change himself into a ‘warlawurru’ (wedge-tailed eagle) and fly behind them. Unknown to the Napangardi women, her Japangardi classificatory brother and the Napanangka were lovers. They travelled further north and returned to Pikilyi where they entered the ground, creating the large freshwater springs that are still there today.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. A variety of images and signs are used to depict the various elements of this story.