Helen Nungarrayi Reed
Artist Profile
Helen Nungarrayi Reed was born in 1971 in Hass Bluff, a community located 227 km west of Alice Springs in NT of Australia. She grew up in Kintore, a small Aboriginal community with a population of about 400, located 550 km west of Alice Springs, near the NT/WA border, where her father and sister still live. Her mother passed away when she was very young. She now lives in Nyirripi, originally an outstation of Yuendumu but now a small community, 440 km west from Alice Springs in Northern Territory. She lives with her husband Geoffrey Gallagher.
Helen has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation since 2014. She paints her father’s Ninkuwakal country. She likes painting because it reminds her of her father and the colours remind her of her country.
The ‘Jukurrpa’ (Dreaming) depicted in her paintings comes from Mina Mina, a very important women’s Dreaming site far to the west of Yuendumu near Lake Mackay and the WA border. The ‘kirda’ (owners) of this Dreaming are Napangardi/Napanangka women and Japangardi/Japanangka men; the area is sacred to Napangardi and Napanangka women. There are a number of ‘mulju’ (water soakages) and a ‘maluri’ (clay pan) at Mina Mina.
In the Dreamtime, ancestral women danced at Mina Mina and ‘karlangu’ (digging sticks) rose up out of the ground. The women collected the digging sticks and then travelled on to the east, dancing, digging for bush tucker, collecting ‘ngalyipi’ (snake vine [Tinospora smilacina]), and creating many places as they went. ‘Ngalyipi’ is a rope-like creeper that grows up the trunks and limbs of trees, including ‘kurrkara’ (desert oak [Allocasuarina decaisneana]). It is used as a ceremonial wrap and as a strap to carry ‘parraja’ (coolamons) and ‘ngami’ (water carriers). ‘Ngalyipi’ is also used to tie around the forehead to cure headaches, and to bind cuts.
