Phyllis Napurrurla Williams / Brush-tail Possum Dreaming (1A)

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

Phyllis Napurrurla Williams was born a long time ago at Mount Doreen Station, an extensive cattle breeding station, about 55km from Yuendumu in the Northern Territory. As a small child Phyllis went bush with her family learning all about her country. For a while she worked at Mount Doreen Station, then she moved to Yuendumu and now she lives in Nyirripi, once an outstation of Yuendumu but now a small remote Aboriginal community. She is a widow and has no children. Phyllis has been painting since 1988 with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs.

Phyllis particularly likes painting Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush Tail Possum Dreaming) but also paints other stories, stories that have been passed down to her by her father and her mother and their parents before them for millennia. When she’s not painting she loves to go hunting with members of the community for bush tucker.

‘Janganpa’ or brush tail possums are nocturnal animals that live and nest in white gum trees. Janganpa Jukurrpa (common brush-tail possum Dreaming) travels all over Warlpiri country. This story is about a group of “janganpa” from a big hill called Mawurrji, west of Yuendumu and north of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs). The family of ‘janganpa’ ancestors lived there. Each night they would go out in hunting forf food. They went to Wirlki and Wanapirdi, where they found ‘pamapardu’ (flying ants). They travelled on to Ngarlkirdipini looking for water. A Nampijinpa women was living at Mawurrji with her two daughters. She gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla ‘janganpa’ but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla furiously ran after the women. He pursued them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place.