Pirlinyanu Dreaming, 2010 by Julie Nangala Robertson, 182x152cm, Cat 13380JR

In this magnificent large work, Julie Nangala Robertson, winner of the 2023 Telstra Aboriginal Art Award in Best Painting Category, paints her Water Dreaming ( Ngapa Jukurrpa ). This site is in the Tanami Desert, a rocky outcrop known as Pirlinyanu, west of Yuendumu and towards the Western Australia border.

This country with its significant waterholes and plentiful bush tucker is one of many significant locations for the Water Dreaming, because if you know which rocks to move you always have access to fresh water in the deep natural occurring wells of Pirlinyanu. Without this knowledge one could imagine there was no water in this desert landscape.

Using a distinctive monochromatic palette to represent arid country and water, Julie has created a minimalist painting of country from an aerial perspective, a work that can be viewed in different orientations.

When journeying to this "country", it is rarely a featureless landscape and from Pirlinyanu, the top of this site, you can see for miles and miles.

The eldest of the five daughters of Dorothy Napangardi Robinson has recently changed the spelling of her surname to Robertson, feeling that her father, Windy, had misspelt it as Julie's other relatives in Yuendumu are all Robertson. Windy had two wives, Rene Robinson and Dorothy Robinson.