Selina Napanangka Fisher / Vaughan Springs Dreaming (2A)

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

Selina Napanganka Fisher was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. At the time her parents were living in Yuendumu. She has three sisters and two brothers. Her Mum has since passed away and her father now lives Mt Allen. Selina is the granddaughter of the late Topsy Napurrurla Fisher, an established artist with Warlukurlangu Artists. Selina went to the local Yuendumu School before going to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs, where she graduated in Year 10. When she finished school, she moved to Nyirripi, where she worked in the local store. She is married to Lance Tanner, who works for the Community Development Employment Project (CDEP). They have three children.

She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2006. Selina tells that when she was little she would sit and watch her grandma paint (Topsy Napurrurla Fisher) and she would teach her many Jukurrpa stories. She paints her father’s Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) and Karnta Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming).

Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station. Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the home of two rainbow serpents, ancestral heroes who lived together as man and wife. The woman ‘rainbow serpent’ was of the Napanangka skin group, the man was a Japangardi. This was a taboo relationship contrary to Warlpiri religious law. Women of the Napanangka and Napangardi subsection sat by the two serpents, picking lice off them. For this service, the two serpents allowed the women to take water from the springs at Pikilyi. This was because the serpents were the ‘kirda’, or ceremonial owners, for that country. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today.