Murdie (Maudie) Nampijinpa Morris was born in the 1930s at Rabbit Flat, a tiny settlement in the middle of the harsh Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory of Australia about 160 km from the Western Australia border and 315 km north-west of Yuendumu. Her parents would have taken her out bush in around Nyirripi area, showing her sites and teaching her the traditional ways of her country. In the early 1980s she settled in Yuendumu and worked at the Old People’s Home – a Program that cares for the elderly by helping them when they are sick, and being with them when they are alone or when they are frighten during storms. She was married but is now a widowed woman. She never had children.

Murdie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2012. She was prompted to paint when she attended a workshop in 2012. She enjoys painting, and paints her father’s jukurrpa, Maliki Jukurrpa (Domestic Dog Dreaming) and Malikijarra Jukurrpa (Two Dog Dreaming). Dreamings that have been passed down through the generations for millennia and relate directly to the land, its features and the animals and plants that inhabit it. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

 Murdies story of Malikijarra Jukurrpa (Two Dogs Dreaming)

The owners of this Dreaming are Nampijinpa/Nangala women and Jampijinpa/Jangala men. The story of the Two Dogs Dreaming relates to the land adjacent to a windmill at Warlarlarla (Rabbit Flat) in the Western Desert of Australia. Two dog ancestors, Jampijinpa and Napangardi, travelled along a creek bed north-east to Yarikurlangu . When they arrived, Jampijinpa and Napangardi made a burrow to rest in and started a big family of dogs. The ribcages of the Jampijinpa, Napangardi and their family can be seen as features in the landscape in the Yarikurlangu area, and have been depicted in this work. Surrounding these prominent symbols, Nampijipa has depicted several waterholes in the Yarikurlangu district.