Judy Long Nampijinpa
Ali Curung, NT
This painting is about pereltye, a white sugary substance made by the lerp scale insect and found on the leaf of the kunjumarra tree (river red gum). Long ago, it was collected by the women for eating, by hitting the leaves of the tree. Then they had to collect it from the sand, clean it and put it in a coolamon. This was mainly found on the banks and in the beds of watercourses.
About the Artist
Judy Long Nampijinpa was born at Neutral Junction Station, near Barrow Creek, 280km north of Alice Springs. Her mother, a Kaytetye woman, was from Warlukurlangu, and her father, a Warlpiri man, was from the Tennant Creek area.
Moving to Ali Curung with her parents, Judy worked as a cleaner at the police station before she took up painting at the Old Women�s Centre in the early 1990s as part of a Community Development Employment Projects program. She went on to become a founding member of Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre in 2008.
Judy first started painting in a traditional style, depicting her father�s Country and the Ngapa Jukupurr (Water Dreaming) of which she is a custodian. Today she is a senior artist at Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre and her works have been exhibited across the country. Her work has been shown at Desert Mob and in 2021 she was a finalist in the Vincent Lingiari Art Award.
