Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker / Red Mallee Flower Dreaming (4073-24)

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

Sylvaria Napurrurla Walker was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to the Utopia Homelands which are located 220 km northeast of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Sylvaria is the granddaughter to Topsy Pwerle Jones and the niece of Joycelyn Petyarre Jones, both well-known artists from Utopia. Sylvaria used to watch her grandmother paint when she was very young and listen to her Grandmother’s Jukurrpa or Dreaming stories. Sylvaria grew up in Utopia and attended her local school, completing her schooling at the age of 16. When she finished school she worked in child care for her local community. Sylvaria is now living in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 kms from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory with her husband Sebastian Japananga Williams and their son.

Sylvaria began working with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2014. She paints her grandmother’s Jukurrpa (Red Mallee Flower Dreaming), dreamings which have been passed down over the millennia. Sylvaria’s feathery style of painting is influenced by the style of her aunties and grandmother.

When Sylvaria is not painting or looking after her young son she likes to go hunting with her family.

The Jukurrpa site shown in this painting for Ngatijirri (budgerigar) is at Yangarnmpi, south of Yuendumu. ‘Ngatijirri’ are small, bright green birds native to central Australia which are common around the Yuendumu area, especially after the summer rains. Men would hunt for ‘ngatijirri’ nests, robbing them of eggs and juvenile birds, which are both considered delicacies. The men would also go out hunting for adult, flying ‘ngatijirri’, which they would kill by swinging branches, killing sticks or ‘karli’ (boomerangs) to hit the birds in flight.

The ‘ngatijirri’ travelled to Yangarnmpi from Patirlirri, near Willowra to the east of Yuendumu and travelled further on to Marngangi, north/west of Mount Dennison and west of Yuendumu. Each time the flock of ancestral ‘ngatijirri’ lands, they perform ceremonies, singing and dancing as they fly and roost in the trees. The sites of these ceremonies are depicted in this painting as concentric circles, while cross-like shapes depict the footprints of the birds on the ground and give an indication of the large flocks of ‘ngatijirri’ that can be found near Yangarnmpi and other sites close to Yuendumu.