"Grandmothers Country & Seven Sisters Dreaming" By Michelle Possum Nungurrayi

Artist: Michelle Possum Nungurrayi 

Size (H x W): 100 x 215 cm

This Painting combines 2 of the Possum families most famous dreaming’s.
Grandmother’s Country which are painted in very warm colours – you’ll see pinks, mauves, burnt reds and warm greys. The artists have used the iconography that indicated how people used the land. It was a rich resource for food and medicinal plants. Then in a spiritual context they have laid out the symbols to sit across the Country, giving the meaning and context of that part of the land in the painting.
As well as the extraordinary Seven Sisters Dreaming story. The Pleiades story is about a group of sisters taking off from the land and heading off into the sky. They are being pursued by an older man who’s seeking a wife among one of the sisters, but he is the wrong skin group. It’s a constant drama that’s played out every night in the Australian night sky. The famous Seven Sisters story is widely told by Aboriginal communities right across Australia. This star group sits very low on the horizon and rises just after dark every evening.
It’s an interesting tension between looking upwards into the heavens and looking downwards at the land spreading out before us.

About the Artist – Michelle Possum Nungurrayi

Michelle Possum Nungurrayi is a highly respected Indigenous artist, born in 1970 in Papunya, a community in the Northern Territory known as the birthplace of the contemporary Aboriginal art movement. She is the daughter of Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri, one of Australia’s most celebrated artists and a founding figure in the Western Desert art tradition, and Emily Nakamarra Possum.

Michelle was taught to paint by her father, and she carries forward his legacy while also sharing her own voice through art. Over time, she has developed a distinctive style that includes Women’s Dreamings and Ceremonial stories, handed down through her family and community.

Her paintings reflect deep knowledge of Country, culture and ceremony. The symbols within her work represent sacred sites, women’s ceremonies, animals, plants, waterholes, digging sticks, footsteps, and more - all woven into rich, living stories of the land and her people.

Michelle’s work is widely collected both in Australia and internationally. She continues to paint in a way that honours her ancestors while sharing the beauty and depth of her culture with the world.