Pirlinyanu Ngapa Jukurrpa

Our mother Dorothy Napangardi taught us both to paint. She had five daughters. She taught Julie [Nangala Robertson] first, she is my big sister and then when I was 12 she taught me how to paint. Our mother Dorothy Napangardi painted her father’s country Mina Mina. Mina Mina is beautiful salt lake country, it is rich with bush food and animals. I have never been to Mina Mina but my mother spoke about how proud she was to be taught by her aunties the dances and songs of her country. She sang and danced the narratives of Mina Mina, next to her aunties. They danced the stories of how the land was made. That’s what my mother painted. The stories of that land. The black and white of the salt water and white sand on the lake. I paint my father’s site of Pirlinyanu which is water dreaming but I also sometimes paint Mina Mina. Our mother said to us both, ‘My daughters when I pass away I want you to be an artist like me. I want you to paint Mina Mina and continue my story’. I am happy and proud to paint for Warlukurlangu and to be an artist like my mother wanted me to be. I always think about her when I am painting, how excited she was when she won the [18th National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art] Award and when she would travel for exhibitions. Now Julie and I are traveling on that same path. Making a name for ourselves as artists in our own right painting and sharing our culture and country. SABRINA NANGALA ROBERTSON