Reanelle Jurra Nungarrayi / Water Dreaming (RJN31)

Reanelle Jurrah is an exciting young artist from Willowra, a remote community 300kms North West of Alice Springs on the banks of the Lander River.

She is the niece of renowned artist Janet Long Nakamarra and her grandmother, Mary Ross is also a talented artist. She learnt to paint by watching her grandmother and aunty from a young age and her style is similar to both ladies.

Reanelle spends her time between Willowra and Alice Springs and lives with her Grandmother where they often sit and paint together.

An exceptionally talented young artist with an exciting career ahead of her.

The lines represent the flowing of water in Reanelle’s homelands where the people did the dancing of the rain. They painted their body with paint (white) and sat and sang the song of the hailstones. Thunder clouds rose in the distance, people saw the clouds and sought shelters because of the rain. They knew the rain was big and strong. When it came closer they all stayed in the shelter and waited till it rained. It rained and rained until everything was flooded then it made rivers, billabongs, lagoons etc and made streams and soakage’s. They lived next to the soakage for one month, until the soakage dried up, and then they would move to another soakage. In the dry the people would dig a hole and cover it with plants and the next morning there would be clean drinking water in there.