• Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)
  • Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)
  • Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)
  • Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)
  • Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)

Biddy Long Yulngarri

Ngalyipi Jukurrpa (Bush Vine Dreaming)

  

    • Acrylic on Canvas
    • Dimensions: 40cm x 30cm
    • Cat No. 292-16

Biddy Long, affectionately known as Tiny and by her skin name Nungarrayi, was born in the early 1930s and spent her childhood on Mount Doreen station and walking throughout the Tanami desert with her family. Along with many Lajamanu artists of her era, Nungarrayi began painting in 1986 after completing a Traditional Painting course conducted by TAFE. She became one of the pioneers of acrylic painting on canvas in the community. Nungarrayi's true introduction to painting came many years earlier, learning to paint ochre onto bodies for cultural ceremonies. But acrylic paints have exposed her to a whole variation of colour that was previously unavailable. Dedicated to preserving Warlpiri culture, Nungarrayi spent many years teaching language and tradition at the local school. She is a strongly traditional woman, with great knowledge of the bush and desert walking. Nungarrayi's art has been widely exhibited around Australia as well as internationally, in France, Germany and Poland. She also has artwork that is held in major national collections. This dreaming tells about a special tree that everyone uses for medicine. It helps cure aches and pains in the joints, headache and snake bites. The vine is wrapped around the arm on leg and is left till the pain is taken away. Ngalyipi is like the bush banana Yuparli plant, it wind s around trees from ground upwards. The Ngalyipi vines has round leaves, it does not have any edible fruits, it is poisonous. The Snake Vine Ngalyipi is used for everything.


Lajamanu has a population of around 900 Warlpiri people. The older generation see Warnayaka as an avenue to achieve a number of needs that are present in their community. At the centre these elders still create their dot paintings. The most important thing expressed by members, is the need to preserve and pass on the cultural significance of Warlpiri, the culture of the people of Lajamanu, which encompasses not only art, but includes language, social structure, law and country. In doing so it is understood that excellence in art, prosperity from art sales, employment opportunities and preservation of pride in being Warlpiri will result. The art centre is a Warlpiri corporation and is staffed mainly by the children of the older generation of Indigenous Lajamanu residents who remember their first contact with white Australia. They maintain the computerised data base and run the art centre production. Older and younger community members produce Aboriginal dot paintings and make wooden artefacts. The centre is a place for a cup of tea and a song and dance, and then a trip into the Spinifex desert to look for goanna and lizards or to collect bush coconut, bush banana, yams and bush honey from native bees.


On standard shipping, our fulfilment time is 7 business days. For urgent orders, please select express post and we will generally fulfil within 2 business days. We are a very small team and shipping from Darwin can take some time. Thanks for your patience! 

We pack all artworks securely to protect during shipping. All artworks and purchase above $100 are insured against damage during transit and require a signature on delivery. A tracking number is be provided as part of our shipping process to the contact details you provide. 

As much as possible (for artworks under 1 metre) we use Australia Post to ship our artworks within Australia. For artworks that are large or fragile, we use Pack n Send to courier the artworks to you. For customers who purchase multiple artworks at once, we can get quotes to send your purchase via the regular shuttle between Darwin and major capital cities. 

We do our best to provide accurate shipping costs on our website at check out, however every item for sale in our gallery is unique and as such, it is sometimes difficult to automate and estimate our shipping costs, especially when customers purchase more than one artwork at once. Our team reviews the postage paid on every order and on the odd occasion we have significantly overcharged or undercharged you, our team will be in contact to rectify. If you have any concerns, or you would like a custom shipping quote on an artwork, send us a note. 

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