Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) by Julie Nangala Robertson, 244x168cm 13223JR

This painting stands as a major and accomplished example of Julie’s oeuvre. In it, she depicts her Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), a powerful ancestral narrative associated with her father’s traditional Country at Pirlinyanu—a rocky outcrop in the Tanami Desert, west of Yuendumu and extending toward the Western Australian border.

Pirlinyanu is a place of deep cultural and practical significance. Beneath its seemingly arid surface lie natural wells of fresh water, revealed only through intimate knowledge of the landscape. Knowing which rocks to move ensures access to water; without this inherited knowledge, the Country appears dry and unforgiving. The site is also rich in bush tucker and forms one of several important locations connected to the Water Dreaming.

Cultural authority for this Country is passed patrilineally, from father to child, while ritual knowledge is transmitted through women—specifically from a father’s sisters to their nieces. In this case, the knowledge belongs to women of the Nampijinpa and Nangala sub-section groups.

The eldest of five daughters of Dorothy Napangardi Robinson, Julie has recently adopted the spelling Robertson for her surname, aligning it with other family members in Yuendumu. Her father, Windy, had earlier used the spelling Robinson. Windy had two wives, Rene Robinson and Dorothy Robinson.

Working from an aerial perspective and employing a distinctive monochromatic palette developed in recent years, Julie’s paintings possess extraordinary optical intensity. By subtly varying dot size and density, and by building up forms through repeated over-dotting, she creates shimmering surfaces and focal points that draw the viewer into the rhythm and depth of the ancestral landscape.