Geraldine Nangala Gallagher

Geraldine Nangala Gallagher comes from Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located approx. 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation in 2010. Since 2005 Warlukurlangu has dropped off canvas and paint for artists in Nyirripi. Geraldine continued to paint through the art centre until 2013, when she moved to Alice Springs.

Geraldine mainly paints her parent’s Jukurrpa, in particular Watiya-warnu Jukurrpa (Seed Dreaming) and Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming). These dreamings relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. They were passed down to her parents and their parents before them for millennia.  Geraldine uses traditional designs and icons with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

This particular site of the Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) is at Ngarlikurlangu, north of Yuendumu. The emu travelled to the rockhole at Ngarlikurlangu to find water. This dreamtime belongs to Jangala/Jampijinpa men and Nangala /Nampijinpa women. In contemporary warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. Emus are usually represented by their footprints, arrow like shapes, that show them walking around Ngarlikiurlangu eating bush raisins. In the time of the Dreaming there was a fight at the site between an emu ancestor and an Australian bustard ancestor over sharing the bush raisin. There is also a dance for this Dreaming that is performed during initiation ceremonies.