Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming)

Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station. Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the home of two rainbow serpents, ancestral heroes who lived together as man and wife. The woman ‘rainbow serpent’ was of the Napanangka skin group, the man was a Japangardi. This was a taboo relationship contrary to Warlpiri religious law. Women of the Napanangka and Napangardi subsection sat by the two serpents, picking lice off them. For this service, the two serpents allowed the women to take water from the springs at Pikilyi. This was because the serpents were the ‘kirda’, or ceremonial owners, for that country. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today. This Dreamings belongs to the women and men of the Japanangka/Napanangka and Japangardi/Napangardi skin groups.

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Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson was born in 1989 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia where her parents lived. She was born to Mika and Ursula Napangardi Hudson and has older twin brothers. Theo attended the local school until she was 14 years.  When she left school she did odd jobs and later joined the Nyirripi Night Patrol, a service that provides safe transportation; diversion from contact with the criminal justice system;  and intervention to prevent disorder in communities. Theo is married and has three children.Theo began painting with the Warlukurlangu Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu in 2002, when she was 13 years of age. “I would watch my Grandmother paint and listen to her stories”. She began to paint in earnest with the art centre in 2006. Warlukurlangu makes regular visits to Nyirripi to drop off canvas, paint and brushes for the artists and to collect finished artwork. Theo paints her mother’s Jukurrpa (Dreamings) and her father’s Jukurrpa, such as Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming) from her mother’s side andPikilyi Jukuurpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) from her father’s side.  These Dreamings have been passed down through the millennia. Theo uses an unrestricted palette and loves to create patterns that depict a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.When Theo is not painting and looking after her family she likes to go hunting for Yurrampi (honey ants) and Yuparli (bush banana).