Felicity Napangardi

My Father’s Country depicts the birthplace and important sites relating to the artist’s father in the central desert country of Yuendumu, Northern Territory. The red & pink hues in My Father’s Country reference birth (red) and the colours of the rich red soils. The general symmetrical and equal synergy of presentation ,mirrors the Indigenous worldview of a balanced connection with land, each other & biotic life. Felicity Nampajimpa Robertson uses a diverse colour palate to reference the rockholes and sandhills and general form of her country. The convergence of colour, meandering linework and diverse design elements (wherein emu tracks are represented as in aerial view left in the sand), infuse her canvas’ with a rhythm and energy that is joyful and highly dynamic. Her topographical works are informed by the important waterholes (roundel shapes), meeting sites, important sacred sites whilst the lines interconnecting them reference journeying from site to site and the songlines in the land. The organic line work relates to the body painting designs that are worn on the body.

Felicity Nampijinpa Robertson has lived most of her life in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal settlement located 290 kms northwest of Alice Springs in the northern Territory of Australia. She attended the local school and then attended Batchelor College, Darwin where she received a Diploma in teaching as an Assistant Teacher. She has worked on and off over the years at Yuendumu School. She is married and has five children and many grandchildren. Felicity is the daughter of renowned artist Shorty Jangala Robertson who has been working with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1988. In 2007 Felicity went to Melbourne where she represented her father’s painting.
Felicity has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists since 2002 and has exhibited her art work in Group Exhibitions since 2005. Felicity paints at the art centre and at home. At home, she likes to tell her grandchildren her Dreaming while she paints. She paints her Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Watiyawarnu Jukurrpa (Seed Dreaming) stories, stories passed down to her from her father and his father’s father before him. These stories are creation stories that relate to Felicity’s family’s traditional country, traditions that stretch back at least fifty millennia.