Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming)

Ursula Napangardi Hudson

$1,625.00

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.

Ursula Napangardi Hudson was born in 1962 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Ursula attended the local school. When she finished she did odd jobs before marrying Mika Hudson, a pastor in Nyirripi, where she has lived ever since. Nyirripi is located a further 150 kms west-south west of Yuendumu. She has three children and six grandchildren.