Artist Profile
JEFFREY JANGALA GALLAGHER
Jeffrey Jangala Gallagher was born in 1970 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. He was born into a family of well-known Warlukurlangu artists. In 1978 he moved to Nyirripi with his family, where he attended the local school.
Jeffrey began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu and Nyirripi in 2021. He paints his father’s and grandfather’s Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) – Ngarlikirlangu and Lukarrara Jukurrpa (Desert Fringe-rush Seed Dreaming), Jukurrpa stories relating directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. The have been passed down through the generations for millennia. He uses an unrestricted palette, blending his own patterns with ancestral motifs to depict his traditional Jukurrpa.
Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming)
This Dreaming is associated with a place called Ngarlikurlangu, 50km north of Yuendumu.
The story centers around the emu (yankirri) and the bush turkey (wardilyka), who lived at separate soakages – Warnirripanu (or Walangkamirirri) to the west for the emu, and Parirri to the east for the bush turkey. Both would gather yakajirri (bush raisins) and mash them into kapurdu (fruit balls) to save in their nests for later consumption.
The emu and bush turkey grew jealous of each other, as the emu believed the bush turkey was picking the juiciest yakajirri, leaving him only the sour ones. In a fit of jealousy, the emu went to the bush turkey’s nest while it was out hunting and destroyed the stored kapurdu. When the bush turkey returned and found the smashed fruit balls, it realized the emu had caused the damage. Furious, the bush turkey traveled west to confront the emu, and a fierce fight ensued, eventually causing the bush turkey to fly away to the north, leaving the destroyed yakajirri behind.
Today, round red rocks can be found at Ngarlikurlangu, symbolizing the kapurdu that the emu smashed. This Jukurrpa is celebrated in traditional Warlpiri ceremonies, including dance during men’s initiation rituals. There are also other Jukurrpa associated with Ngarlikurlangu, such as the wardilyka Jukurrpa (bush turkey Dreaming) and the pirntina Jukurrpa (woma or Ramsay’s python Dreaming). In contemporary Warlpiri paintings, traditional iconography is often used to represent the emu’s footprints (wirliya), telling the story of its movements across the land.
WARLUKURLANGU ARTISTS
Warlukurlangu Artists is one of the longest running and most successful Aboriginal-owned art centres in Central Australia. Renowned for its gloriously colourful acrylic paintings and limited-edition prints, Warlukurlangu Artists have a national and international profile, and have been featured in exhibitions and publications in Australia and around the world. Established in 1985, Warlukurlangu Artist Aboriginal Corporation is a 100% Aboriginal-owned not-for-profit organisation, owned by its artist from the remote desertcommunities of Yuendumu and Nyirripi in Central Australia.
Warlukurlangu means ‘belonging to fire’ in the local language, Warlpiri, and is named for a fire dreaming site west of Yuendumu.