Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming)

Cecily Napanangka Marshall

$2,245.00

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.

Cecily Napanangka Marshall is a Warlpiri woman who has strong connections to the Yuendumu and Nyirripi communities, located in the central desert region of the Northern Territory. Cecily began her schooling in Alice Spring but then attended the local school in Nyirripi when she moved in with her grandmother.