Christopher Japangardi Poulson

Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming). Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station and tells of the home of two Rainbow Serpent ancestral heroes who lived together as man and wife, one a woman of the Napanangka skin group, the other a man of the Japangardi skin group. This was a taboo relationship contrary to Warlpiri religious law. The spirits of these two are still at Pikilyi today. In this story women of the Napanangka and Napangardi subsection sit by the two serpents, picking lice off them. For this service, the two serpents allowed the women to take water from the springs at Pikilyi. This was because the serpents were the “Kirda”, or ceremonial bosses, for that country. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements.