Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming)

Wilma Napangardi Poulson

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.

Wilma Napangardi Poulson was born in 1970 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290km from Alice Springs in NT of Australia. She has a sister, Ivy Napangardi Poulson, an artist also working with Warlukurlangu Artists, and a brother who alternates between Darwin and Nyirripi.Wilma went to the local school in Yuendumu, then to Yirara College in Alice Springs. When she finished schooling she returned to Yuendumu.