Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson / Fire Country Dreaming (2A)

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

Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson was born in 1989 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located 440km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia where her parents lived. She was born to Mika and Ursula Napangardi Hudson and has older twin brothers. Theo attended the local school until she was 14 years. When she left school she did odd jobs and later joined the Nyirripi Night Patrol, a service that provides safe transportation; diversion from contact with the criminal justice system; and intervention to prevent disorder in communities. Theo is married and has three children.

Theo began painting with the Warlukurlangu Aboriginal Corporation located in Yuendumu in 2002, when she was 13 years of age. “I would watch my Grandmother paint and listen to her stories”. She began to paint in earnest with the art centre in 2006. Warlukurlangu makes regular visits to Nyirripi to drop off canvas, paint and brushes for the artists and to collect finished artwork.

Theo paints her mother’s Jukurrpa (Dreamings) and her father’s Jukurrpa, such as Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming) from her mother’s side and Pikilyi Jukuurpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) from her father’s side. These Dreamings have been passed down through the millennia. Theo uses an unrestricted palette and loves to create patterns that depict a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When Theo is not painting and looking after her family she likes to go hunting for Yurrampi (honey ants) and Yuparli (bush banana).

This Dreaming belongs to Warlukurlangu country to the south-west of Yuendumu, for which Jampijinpa/Jangala men and Nampijinpa/Nangala women have custodial responsibility.

An old man ‘lungkarda’ (centralian blue-tongued lizard), of the Jampijinpa skin group, lived on a hill with his two Jangala sons. The old man would feign blindness and send the two boys hunting in search of meat. While they were gone he would hunt and eat anything that he caught before they returned. One day the sons returned with a kangaroo that they had caught after much tracking. Unfortunately the kangaroo was sacred to the ‘lungkarda’, unbeknown to the boys. In his anger the old man decided to punish his sons and the next time they went out, he put his fire stick to the ground and sent a huge bush fire after them which chased them for many miles, at times propelling them through the air. Although the boys beat out the flames, ‘lungkarda’s’ special magic kept the fire alive and it re-appeared out of his blue-tongued lizard hole. Exhausted the boys were finally overcome by the flames.

In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, particular sites and other elements. Usually sites that are depicted in paintings of this Jukurrpa include Warlukurlangu (a men’s cave), Kirrkirrmanu (where the sacred kangaroo was killed), Wayililinypa (where the fire killed the two Jangala sons) and Marnimarnu (a water soakage) where the two Jangalas camped.