Jungunpa by Polly Napangardi Watson 90x60cm

Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse) Dreaming
Polly Napangardi Watson
Acrylic on canvas, 90 × 60 cm

This vibrant painting by Warlpiri artist Polly Napangardi Watson depicts the Jungunpa (Marsupial Mouse) Dreaming, an ancestral narrative connected to the artist’s birthplace at Mount Doreen, west of Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert of Central Australia.

The work features the classic colour palette associated with Polly Watson’s paintings from this period, with warm ochre tones that reflect the colours of the desert landscape—sandhills, rocky outcrops and spinifex plains. These earthy hues echo the natural pigments of Country and reinforce the deep connection between the Dreaming story and the land from which it emerges.

Using the aerial perspective characteristic of Western Desert painting, Watson maps the landscape through rhythmic lines and intricate dotting. The composition traces the nocturnal pathways of the Jungunpa, a small marsupial mouse that lives in underground burrows and emerges at night to forage. Flowing tracks and subtle shifts in dotting create a strong sense of movement across the canvas, suggesting the animal’s journey through the desert terrain.

In Warlpiri culture the Jungunpa Dreaming is associated with important sites around Mount Doreen, approximately 350 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs. Custodianship of this Dreaming belongs to women of the Napangardi and Napanangka skin groups, who share a close kinship relationship as aunt and niece. In accordance with traditional law, senior women pass knowledge of these stories and ceremonial responsibilities to younger generations.

Through her finely controlled dotting and dynamic composition, Polly Napangardi Watson transforms this ancestral narrative into a powerful visual expression of Warlpiri Country and Dreaming.