Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart / Two Men Dreaming (2037-23)

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

“I like the Aboriginal colours, the desert colours–red, black, white, yellow, orange and brown.”

Queenie Nungarrayi Stewart was born in Alice Spring’s Hospital but lives in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the only daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Stewart, the Chairman of Warlukurlangu Art Centre, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, and one of its founding and most long-standing artists and also one of the main artists of the Yuendumu School Doors.

Queenie grew up in Yuendumu and attended the local school. She has two children, Dion and Bevan from her first marriage and several grand-children. She is married to Edward Jangala Smith, also a painter with the art centre.

She has been painting with the art centre since 1997, often painting together with her father and learning the large number of traditional Dreaming stories. Both Paddy Stewart and Queenie are traditional owners of the land where Yuendumu is located. She likes painting all the time, painting on canvas and linen and sometimes painting beads, coolamons or music sticks.

The Wati Jarra Jukurrpa (two men Dreaming) belongs to Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men and Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. The painting depicts the journey of a father and son performing initiation ceremonies for young men. Both men and women executed ceremonies as part of the young men’s initiation ceremony. The men dragged heavy bushes from the sites of Purrpalala,Yanjirlpiri In this site there is a low hill and a water soakage. The men wear ‘jinjirla’ (feathers) on both sides of their heads. They also wear wooden carving of stars which are also laid out on the ground as part of the sand paintings produced for ‘kurlkurlpa’ (business). Their bodies are painted with white and black circles, representing stars. The ‘witi’ poles (ceremonial spears) are tied to the legs of the young initiates. ‘Ngalyipi’ (snake vine) is collected and used to tie the ‘witi’ poles to the legs of the initiates or vertically to the shins of the dancing initiates. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. In paintings of this Dreaming, concentric circles are often used to represent the ‘yanjirlpiri’ (stars) painted in the men’s bodies while strait lines are frequently used to represent the ‘witi’ poles.