Rosie Nangala Fleming

Rosie Nangala Fleming was born around 1928, at a time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family, she travelled around the country in the traditional way, visiting sacred sites and learning about her ancestors, her creation stories, and her country. She and her late husband moved from their ancestral country to live in Yuendumu when it became a settlement in the late 1940s.

As a young woman, Rosie worked for Mrs. Fleming, a Baptist missionary who assisted her in establishing a Warlpiri Women’s Museum at Yuendumu in the late 1970s, as a keeping place for ceremonial objects and a centre for women to meet. Rosie became president of the museum and administered it for many years.

Rosie Nangala created artifacts, seed necklaces, and mats for many years. When Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal-owned and -governed art centre, was established in 1985, Rosie was one of the first women to paint with acrylic on canvas. She painted her mother’s and father’s Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories, which related directly to her land, its features, and its animals. These stories had been passed down through generations for millennia. Her Dreamings were ngapa (water) from her mother’s side, and warlukurlangu (fire) and Yankirri (emu) from her father’s side.

Rosie continued to paint at the art centre every weekday with her friends and still enjoyed going hunting when she could. She was born in Alyawarr country, and her mother was one of the original artists in the Utopian Batik movement, along with her aunties, Lilly and Daisy Kemarre. Rosie especially liked to paint bush medicine and wildflowers from the surrounding areas using sticks. She began painting after seeing her daughter, Margaret Ross, paint.