Nathania Nangala Granites / Water Dreaming (2B)

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

Nathania Nangala Granites was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She was born into a family of artists. Her mother is Valda Napangardi Granites and her grandmother is Alma Nungarrayi Granites, an established senior artist who has exhibited all over the world. Nathania grew up listening to her mother’s and her father’s dreaming stories and watching her family paint. She went to the local school in Yuendumu. When she finished school she assisted Yasmin Napurrular Musharbash, taking photos for Yasmin’s study of everyday life in an Aboriginal camp. Nathania is married and has a little boy born in 2013.

Nathania has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2011. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa, particularly Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and her mother’s Jukurrpa, Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming). These stories have been passed down over the generations for millennia and relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Nathania uses an unrestricted palette to depict a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

The site depicted in this painting is Puyurru, west of Yuendumu. In the usually dry creek beds are soakages, or naturally occurring wells. In this dreaming, two Jangala men, rainmakers, sang the rain, unleashing a giant storm. The storm travelled across the country from the east to the west, initially travelling with a ‘pamapardu Jukurrpa’ (termite Dreaming) from Warntungurru to Warlura, a waterhole 8 miles east of Yuendumu. At Warlura, a gecko called Yumariyumari blew the storm on to Lapurrukurra and Wilpiri. Bolts of lightning shot out at Wirnpa (also called Mardinymardinypa) and at Kanaralji. At this point the Dreaming track also includes the ‘kurdukurdu mangkurdu Jukurrpa’ (children of the clouds Dreaming). The water Dreaming built hills at Ngamangama using baby clouds and also stuck long pointy clouds into the ground at Jukajuka, where they can still be seen today as rock formations.

The termite Dreaming eventually continued west to Nyirripi, a community approximately 160km west of Yuendumu. The water Dreaming then travelled from the south over Mikanji, a watercourse with soakages northwest of Yuendumu. At Mikanji, the storm was picked up by a ‘kirrkarlanji’ (brown falcon) and taken farther north. At Puyurru, the falcon dug up a giant ‘warnayarra’ (rainbow serpent). The serpent carried water with it to create another large lake, Jillyiumpa, close to an outstation in this country. After stopping at Puyurru, the water Dreaming travelled on through other locations including Yalyarilalku, Mikilyparnta, Katalpi, Lungkardajarra, Jirawarnpa, Kamira, Yurrunjuku, and Jikaya before moving on into Gurindji country to the north.