Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) – Puyurru

Bess Napanangka Poulson

$1,200.00

This painting shares the Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) from Puyurru, west of Yuendumu, where rainmaker ancestors called in a great storm that travelled with termite, cloud, and rainbow serpent Dreamings to shape Warlpiri Country. Hills, rock formations, and lakes still mark its passage, each holding the memory of water and creation. Through rich traditional iconography — clouds, floodwaters, and sacred soakages — the artist carries this powerful story into the present, each element of the painting echoing the movement of storm, cloud, and water across Country.

Bess Napanangka Poulson was born in 1972 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in Northern Territory of Australia. Bess was born into a family of artists. Her mother is Mary Anne Nampijinpa Michaels and her sister is Portia Napanangka Michaels, both well-known Warlukurlangu artists. Bess attended the local school in Yuendumu. After leaving school she worked for the Yuendumu store and the Mining Store in Yuendumu. Later, she moved to Nyirripi to be closer to her family.