MARY ANNE NAMPIJINPA MICHAELS

Mary Anne Nampijinpa Michaels was born in the bush near Lappi Lappi Rock, an area located on Mount Doreen Station, in the Northern Territory. Mount Doreen is located between Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs and Nyirripi, 160km north-west of Yuendumu.

 

Nampijinpa Michaels painted with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, from 2005 – 2012, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu.

 

When not painting, Nampijinpa Michaels still loved to go hunting.

 

Nampijinpa Michaels painted her father’s Tjukurpa stories, Dreamings relating directly to Lappi Lappi, her land. These stories were passed down to her by her father and mother and their parents before them for generations.

 

Located in a sheltered basin, the rock hole is a permanent source of water, and is surrounded in country rich in bush tucker (bush food). In the time of the Tjurkurpa (Dream-time), many mothers with young children gathered there because it was a safe place to stay. But the rock hole is home to the warnayarra, a rainbow serpent that travels under-ground between various rock holes. One day, the warna-yarra heard the women and children singing and dancing, it travelled silently under the water towards them, and on reaching the edge, rose up and ate them all.