Michelle Possum Nungurrayi / Grandmother’s Country and Seven Sisters Dreaming (KFA223254)

Michelle Possum Nungurrayi was born in 1969, the younger daughter of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Emily Nakamarra. She is of the Anmatyerre Tribe and grew up at Mt. Allen & Napperby “in the bush way”. She now resides in Melbourne with her family. Her older sister is Gabriella Possum, who is also a highly sought after artist, represented in major collections within Australia and Internationally. Their late father, Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO, is one of Australia’s most celebrated artists. Clifford’s art hangs in major collections and museums worldwide, he presented his art to the Queen, and features in numerous important publications on the Masters of Australian Art.

Michelle has been painting since a very early age, and whilst Clifford taught both his daughters technique, their styles differ considerably.  Michelle’s works are colourful and dramatic in style, depicting the dreaming stories and women’s ceremonial activities of her paternal grandmother Long Rose Nungala, combined with the bold and precise imaging of her father’s works.  Both Michelle and Gabriella joined their father in collaborative works, and carry on the legacy of the grass roots Papunya Tula art and associated cultural content.

Michelle first exhibited with her father and sister in Brisbane in 1987, and at Cooee Gallery in Sydney 1992.  Since that time, she has had huge exposure through Galleries within Australia and overseas.  Her content includes Seven Sisters Dreaming, Goanna Dreaming, Bush Coconut, and other bush tucker themes, however she is best known for her beautiful Women’s Dreaming series.

SELECTED SOLO & GROUP EXHIBITIONS

• 2024 How We Paint – 8 Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle
• 2024 ICONIC, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2023 Vividly Bold, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2023 Possum Family, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2023 O Lounge Exhibition, Australian Open Tennis tournament, Melbourne
• 2022 Connection, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
• 2020 Colours of Spring, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2020 Family Business – The Art of the Possum Family, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2020 The Continuing Legacy of Clifford Possum: Clifford, Gabriella, Michelle, Coo-ee Art Gallery, Sydney
• 2019 Generations II, Mitchelton Gallery of Aboriginal Art, Nagambie VIC
• 2019 International Women’s Day, Kate Owen Gallery, Sydney
• 2019 Landscape Colours, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• 2016 From the Sand to the Sails | a Possum Family Exhibition
• 2015 Gabriella Possum Nungurrayi & Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• 2009 Michelle Possum, Australia Dreaming Art, Melbourne
• 2009 Generations, Aranda Art Gallery, Melbourne
• 2007 Shanghai Art Fair, China
• 2007 London Art Fair, UK
• 2007 Hong Kong Cricket Club
• 2006 Shanghai Art Fair, China
• 2006 Opening Exhibition, Aranda Art, Alice Springs
• 2006 Modern Masters from an Ancient Culture, Aranda Art Alice Springs
• 2006 Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Fair, Sydney
• 2005 Christmas Show, Australian Contemporary Aboriginal Art
• 2005 Aboriginal and Oceanic Art Fair, Sydney
• 1995 Desert Dreaming
• 1987 Possum Family Paintings, Brisbane
• 1982 Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, Sydney

HIGHLIGHTS & ACHIEVEMENTS
• 2022 Connection | Songlines from Australia’s First Peoples in a spectacular immersive experience, National Museum of Australia, Canberra

SELECTED COLLECTIONS
• Aranda Collection, Melbourne
• Knight Family Collection, Melbourne
• Pat Corrigan Collection, Brisbane

BIBLIOGRAPHY
• Johnson, V., 1994, The Dictionary of Western Desert Artists, Craftsman House, NSW (C)

Grandmother’s Country
In this work, Michelle Possum Nungurrayi paints the women’s ceremonial sites that surround Tjukurla and Yuelamu in the Western Desert—Country inherited from her Ancestral Grandmother, who travelled through this Anmatyerre landscape in the Dreamtime during Creation. These sites hold deep cultural significance. They are places where women gather to sing the songlines, perform ceremonial dances, apply body paint, and pass on sacred Dreaming stories to the next generations.

Throughout the painting, Michelle captures the features of her Grandmother’s Country: the shifting sandhills, freshwater soakages, dried salt pans and ancient rockholes carved into the bedrock—lifesaving water sources during long periods of drought. The landscape is dotted with desert vegetation including spinifex grass, wild bush wheat, honey flowers used for sugarbag (native bee honey), and underground bush foods such as sweet yams.

Each cluster of motifs—circles, pathways, tracks, and bursting floral forms—encodes specific knowledge, linking people, place, and ancestral narrative. The composition brings together multiple sites, stories and seasonal food sources, reflecting the interconnected nature of desert life.

Overall, the painting is a powerful amalgamation of past and present. It offers a layered, philosophical portrait of this Country—seen through the eyes of a custodian who continues her family’s artistic and cultural legacy. Through colour, movement and meticulous detail, Michelle preserves and celebrates the enduring spirit of her Grandmother’s Dreaming.

Seven Sisters Dreaming
In the Dreamtime a group of seven Napaltjarri women were being pursued by a Jakamarra man called Jilbi. He had been sitting in a cave at irlkirdi practicing love magic by cutting off his long hair and weaving it by hand onto a wooden spindle, then performing songs and dances which people from far off could hear. Often he would entice young women to come to his cave and live with him. Jakamarra men were very proud of their successes when they practiced this magic, and spent much time boasting among themselves about their prowess. The seven women had no intention of sleeping with the Jakamarra man and ran away from him, journeying a long way across the desert until they were too tired and hungry to go any further. They sat down at Uluru to search for honey ants, then when they saw Jilbi approaching went to a place called Kurlunyalimpa, and changed themselves into seven fires.

With the help of spirits at Uluru they went up into the sky to become stars. Ever since then they can be seen as a cluster of seven stars in the constellation Taurus, known as the Pleiades. Jilbi transformed himself into the Morning Star in Orion’s belt, and continues to chase the Pleiades across the sky.