Mamupururnpa Jukurrpa (Barking Spider Dreaming)

This painting depicts the Mamupururnpa Jukurrpa (barking spider [Theraphosidae mygalomorph] Dreaming). ‘Mamupururna’ is a large burrowing spider common in the Yuendumu area. ‘Mamupururnpa’ make a loud noise in the evening from which its name is taken, “Pururnpa”. In the time of the Jukurrpa ancestral heroic descendants of today’s ‘mamupururnpa’ travelled from Yarrungkanyi (Mount Doreen, near Yuendumu). A group of ‘wakulyarri’ (rock wallaby [Macropus robustus]) were travelling around to the north and east of Yarrungkanyi. The ancestral ‘mamupururnpa’ sucked them into his burrow, later blowing them out. They landed 200 km to the west at Kunajarrayi (Mount Nicker). The rock formations found today at Kunajarrayi represent the bodies of the ‘wakulyarri’.