Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse) 2003 by Polly Napangardi Watson 91x31cm

Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse) Dreaming, 2003

This elegant painting by Warlpiri artist Polly Napangardi Watson depicts the Jungunpa Dreaming through a rhythmic network of finely layered dots and flowing tracks that convey the nocturnal movement of the marsupial mouse across the desert landscape.In this painting Polly’s aerial perspective of the tracks taken by the marsupial mouse as it comes out at night to feed.

Many paintings by Warlpiri Aboriginal artist Polly Napangardi Watson depict the Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse) Dreaming, an ancestral story connected to her country at Mount Doreen, west of Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert of Central Australia.

The Jungunpa, or marsupial mouse, is a small nocturnal mammal that lives in underground burrows and emerges at night to forage across the desert landscape. Traditionally it was hunted as bush food, and its movements across Country form part of a Dreaming narrative associated with important sites around Mount Doreen.

Using the aerial perspective characteristic of Western Desert painting, Polly Napangardi Watson maps the landscape through intricate dotting and rhythmic linear forms. Concentric circles often represent the underground burrows of the Jungunpa, while flowing pathways trace the tracks taken by the small animal as it moves across sandhills and spinifex plains during the night.

The dense fields of dotting evoke the textures of the desert environment—sand, grasses and rocky outcrops—while also suggesting the shimmering heat of the landscape and the vast night sky above. Through this visual language the painting expresses both the physical landscape and the spiritual knowledge embedded within Warlpiri Country.

Custodianship of the Jungunpa Dreaming belongs to women of the Napangardi and Napanangka skin groups, who share a close kinship relationship as aunt and niece. In accordance with Warlpiri cultural law, senior women pass knowledge of these stories and ceremonial responsibilities to younger generations.

Through her finely detailed dotting and dynamic compositions, Polly Napangardi Watson transforms ancestral journeys across the desert landscape into powerful contemporary expressions of Warlpiri culture and Western Desert Aboriginal art.