Sarah Leo Napurrurla

Australian-Aboriginal painter. Originally from Yuendumu in the Central Desert, Sarah Leo evokes here the Dream (Jukurrpa) of Water (Ngapa) linked to the sacred site of Puyurru, located to the west of her community.

As this dream has sacred value, artists like Sarah Leo only give us the version instilled in children. The one given to us mixes multiple dreams - or dream trails - that intersect during the journeys undertaken by different ancestors.

The story told by this painting begins with two rainmaker men from the Jangala family who called out the rain with their songs and thus set off a huge thunderstorm. It moved along their clan territory with a thunderous noise produced by lightning. The story then becomes more complicated and can be summed up in the simple fact that this major Dream explains how the multiple marshes on which the survival of the desert peoples depend were created and above all gives spatial landmarks to find them according to the dunes, rocky headlands, etc.

The concentric circle is a symbol used for millennia by the Aborigines who live in the central desert. It represents sacred sites, like here Puyurru. It is always remarkable how much through the work of its artists, Aboriginal art is constantly evolving. Although this symbol is quite simple, Sarah Leo and her peers are continually evolving it. Here, the artist has composed it with multiple dotted lines of yellow-orange color.