Reanelle Jurra Nungarrayi / Water Dreaming (RJN41)

Reanelle Jurrah Nungarrayi is an Aboriginal artist from Willowra, a remote Warlpiri community approximately 300 km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, located on the banks of the Lander River.

She comes from a strong painting family. Reanelle is the niece of respected Central Desert artist Janet Long Nakamarra and her grandmother, Mary Ross, is also a talented artist.

She learnt to paint from a young age by watching her grandmother and aunty, and her work reflects the influence of both artists as she continues the family’s painting traditions.

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.

This Aboriginal Water Dreaming painting depicts the water stories from Reanelle’s homelands around Willowra in the Northern Territory, a story she learnt from her family while growing up watching her grandmother and aunty paint.

The circular forms represent waterholes and soakages that fill during the heavy rains. The surrounding patterns show the movement of water across the Country, creating rivers, billabongs, lagoons and small streams that flow through the landscape.

In the Dreaming, people performed rain dances and sang songs calling for the storms to come. They painted their bodies with white clay and watched the thunderclouds gather before the powerful rains arrived.

After the rains, the waterholes and soakages filled, providing life-giving water for both the people and the Country. Families would camp beside these water sources while water was plentiful, before travelling across the land to the next soakage as the Country began to dry.

This painting tells the story of the rains and the important network of waterholes that sustain life across the desert landscape.

In this painting, a central waterhole is surrounded by patterns representing the movement of water through the Country.