Bowl – Otto Jungarrayi Sims – Warlu Jukurrpa (Fire Dreaming) alperstein

This lovely colourful ceramic nut bowl is Dishwasher and microwave safe.

Dimensions: Height: 6.5cm | Diameter: 11.5cm

Based on artwork by Otto Jungarrayi Sims

‘Warlu Jukurrpa’ (Fire Dreaming)

This painting shows the traditional practices assosciated with burning off areas of spinifex country. The fires are lit so that ‘liwirringki’ (burrowing skinks), other lizards and small mammals are flushed out of their burrows and hiding places. This allows them to be more easily caught for food and also enables the re-growth of a diversity of plants, which in turn attracts a broader range of animal food species. The ‘kirda’ (custodians) of this dreaming are Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men and Napaljarri/Nungarrayi women. The ‘kurdungurlu’ (ceremonial police) are the Jampijinpa/Nampijinpa and the Jupurrurla/Napurrurla skin groups. This Dreaming is specifically associated with hunting ‘liwirringki’ and is celebrated with a ‘corroboree’ (ceremonial design). This corroboree is painted on the ground that has been burnt and cleared by the fire that was started there.

Otto Jungarrayi Sims was born in 1960 at Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community about 290km northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. He remembers spending much of his childhood travelling in the surrounding country of this region. Otto finished high school in Yuendumu and has continued his studies through the indigenous college in Alice Spring where he got a bachelor in Business. He has worked for Yuendumu Council and the Tanami Goldmine in the 1990s. Otto paints his fathers, Paddy Japaljarri Sims, stories, that were passed down to Paddy by his parents, and their parents before them for millennia. These stories relate directly to Otto’s country at Kunajarrayi and Yanjilpirri, its features and flora and fauna. Otto has painted for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1990, and was elected to its executive committee in 2002 and Chairman of the art centre in 2007. In March 2008 Otto travelled to Bahrain for the opening of a Warlukurlangu group exhibition at the La Fontaine Centre of Contemporary Art. This was Otto’s first trip overseas. Otto has a passion for hunting Kiparra (Bush turkey), and can often be seen driving down backroads around Yuendumu in his four wheel drive.

  Royalities from these products directly benefit the artist and their community