Melinda Napurrurla Wilson / Desert Fringe-rush Seed Dreaming (6649-22)

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

Melinda Napurrurla Wilson was born in 1988 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. At the time, her parents were living in Lajamanu, an Aboriginal community in semi-arid country on the edge of the Tanami Desert, halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs – 592 km from Yuendumu. She attended the local Lajamanu School and when she finished school she worked for the Outback Store and then the Mental Health Program. After her mother died she moved to Yuendumu with her father Brian Wilson, to be close to her Grandma, Maisie Napurrurla Wayne, also a Warlukurlangu artist.

Melinda has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2004. She paints her grandmother’s Lukarrara Jukurrpa (Desert fringe-rush seed Dreaming), stories that were passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. Melinda began using traditional iconography in her paintings but because of her love for pattern and colour she has developed an individualist style using pattern and design in a variety of contexts to depict her traditional jukurrpa—“I love painting with patterns”.

Melinda is married to Steven Jangala Hargraves and they have three children. When she is not painting she sometimes goes bush, hunting with her family – “We take kangaroo tail and eat when out there.”

This Jukurrpa belongs to women of the Nakamarra / Napurrurla subsections and to Jakamarra / Jupurrurla men. This Dreaming is associated with a place called Jaralypari, north of Yuendumu. Lukarrara (desert fringe-rush) is a grass with an edible seed. The seeds are traditionally ground on a large stone (‘ngatinyanu’) with a smaller stone (‘ngalikirri’) to make flour. This flour is mixed with water (‘ngapa’) to make damper cakes which are cooked and eaten. In Warlpiri traditional paintings iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. Large concentric circles often represent the site of Jaralypari and also the seed bearing grass Lukurrara. ‘U’ shapes can depict the Karnta (women) collecting ‘lukarrara’ and straight lines are frequently used to portray seeds that fall down to the ground and are also collected by women using their ‘parrajas’ (wooden food carriers) and ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks).