Two Snake Dreaming Screenprint by Michelle Possum Nungarrayi

"Two Snake Dreaming" Screenprint by Michelle Possum Nungarrayi depicts snakes travelling around the area of 20 Mile Bore on Napperby Station where the artist grew up. Both snakes lay their eggs in the same nest. This is very unusual as females usually breed apart. In the Luritja tribal story for this area the two snakes represent two women of the Napaltjarri skin group in the Dreamtime. These women ate a poisonous small sweey blackberry called Pula Pula. As their punishment they were changed in to Pilkardi (snakes). They became small orange snakes called Inoorki which live in this country today, They are not good ‘bush tucker’ and Aboriginal people leave them alone.

Michelle Possum Nungurrayi, born in 1969, is the younger daughter of the famous Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and her distinct style also uses dotting to depict the topography of her country, echoing her father's mastery of three-dimensional space.