Pirlinyanu Dreaming by Julie Nangala Robertson, size 61x31cm, Cat 7819JR

Julie Nangala Robertson, winner of the 2023 Telstra Aboriginal Art Award in Best Painting Category, depicts her Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), which is associated with her father’s traditional country of Pirlinyanu, a rocky outcrop in the Tanami Desert, west of Yuendumu and towards the WA border.

This rocky 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. Ownership of country is passed down from the father (patrilineal) and ritual knowledge is passed on from auntie to niece (father’s sisters). In this case it is those of the Nampijinpa and Nangala sub-section groups.

Using an aerial perspective along with a more recently established and distinctive monochromatic palette, Julie’s current paintings have become works of extraordinary optical brilliance as she alternates the size of dots throughout her work as well as building up specific shapes or reference points often by repeated overdotting.

The eldest of the five daughters of Dorothy Napangardi Robinson, Julie 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.