Download - Aboriginal Artbook
A B O R I G I N A L A R TC O L L E C T I O N
Introduction 04
Barbara Weir 06
Anna Price Petyarre 08
Kathleen Petyarre 10
Janelle Stockman Napaltjarri 12
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa 14
Minnie Pwerle 16
Betsy Napangardi Lewis 22
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri 24
Dolly Petyarre Mills 28
Evelyn Pultara 30
Freddie Timms 34
Gloria Tamerre Petyarre 36
Jack Dale 42
Judy Napangardi Watson 44
Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa 48
Kudditiji Kngwarreye 50
Liddy Napanangka Walker 58
Mary Anne Nampijinpa Michaels 60
Ningura Napurrula 62
Tjunkiya Napaltjarri 64
Wendy Darby 66
Wentja Napaltjarri 68
Gracie Ward Napaltjarri 70
Jeannie Mills Pwerl 72
M. J. Sally Gabori 74
Gordon Syron 76
Roy Mcivor 78
Sarrita King 80
Mervyn Numbagardie 82
Jorna Newberry 84
Alma Nungurrayi Granites 86
Nyree Ngari Reynolds 88
Dawn Ngala Wheeler 100
C O L L E C T I O N B Y D I E T E R & L I L I A N S C H M I D T
A B O R I G I N A L A R T
Australian Aboriginal art is one of the oldest continu-ing art traditions in the world. Much of the most impor-tant knowledge of aboriginal society was conveyed through different kinds of storytelling — including narratives that were spoken, performed as dances or songs, and those that were painted.
Traditional symbols are an essential part of much con-temporary Aboriginal art. Aboriginal peoples have long artistic traditions within which they use conventi-onal designs and symbols.
These designs when applied to any surface, whether on the body of a person taking part in a ceremony or on a shield, have the power to transform the object to one with religious significance and power. Australian Aboriginal contemporary traditional work depicts the-mes connected to the „Dreamtime“ and are frequent-ly called „Dreamings“
„The Dreamtime is the period in which creative acts were performed by the first ancestors of men -- spirits, heros and heroines, who established the pattern of nature and life, and created man‘s environment.
The Dreamtime is a process as well as a period: it had its beginning when the world was young and unfor-med, but it has never ceased. The ancestor who esta-blished law and patterns of behavior is as alive today as when he performed his original creative acts. The sacred past, the Dreamtime, is for Aborigines also the sacred present, the Eternal Dreamtime.“
THE DREAMING
Dreaming does not convey the fullness of the con-cept for Aboriginal people, but is the most acceptable English word to Aboriginal people. The word is accep-table because very often revelations or insights are received in dreams or recurring visions. The Dreaming refers to all that is known and all that is understood. It
is the way Aboriginal people explain life and how their world came into being. It is central to the existence of traditional Aboriginal people, their lifestyle and their culture, for it determines their values and beliefs and their relationship with every living creature and every feature of the landscape.
JOURNEY OF THE CREATOR ANCESTORS
The Dreaming tells of the journeys and deeds of crea-tor ancestors. The creator ancestors made the trees, rocks, waterholes, rivers, mountains and stars, as well as the animals and plants, and their spirits inhabit these features of the natural world today. Good and bad behaviours are demonstrated in Dreaming sto-ries as ancestors hunt, marry, care for children and defend themselves from their enemies.
CONCEPT OF TIME
The Dreaming is often understood as a period of time, but this European concept of a unit of time in past does not contain the full meaning. The Dreaming is not some long past era but a continuous entity, from which people come, which people renew and which people go back to.
Art is one of the ways through which Aboriginal peo-ple communicate with and maintain a oneness with the Dreaming. When people take on the characteris-tics of the Dreaming ancestors through dance, song and art and when they maintain sacred sites, the spi-rits of the creator ancestors are renewed.
THE INDIVIDUAL‘S LINK WITH THE DREAMING
For Aboriginal people who follow traditional beliefs, the Dreaming is intensely personal. Each person is linked to it by his or her individual Dreaming (or to-tem). This belief involves the idea that the creator ancestors, who were physically alive in the natural features of the landscape in which they once moved.
INTRODUCTION
04
OUR ‚COUNTRY‘
It is the natural world, which therefore provides the link between the people and the Dreaming, especially the land (or ‚country‘) to which a person belongs.
Aboriginal people see themselves as related to, and part of, this natural world and know its features in in-tricate detail. This relationship carries responsibilities for its survival and continuity so that each person has special obligations to protect and preserve the spirit of the land and the life forms that are a part of it.
CULTURAL HERITAGE
The Dreaming is as important to Aboriginal people as the Christian Bible and the whole ethos of Christian belief is to the devout Christian.
The Dreaming is still vitally important to today‘s Abori-ginal people. It gives a social and spiritual base and links them to their cultural heritage. Many Aboriginal people are Christian as well as having a continuing belief in their Dreaming.
In some areas, where Aboriginal people may no lon-ger have the full knowledge of their Dreaming, they still retain strong spirituality, kinship practices and tra-ditional values and beliefs.
ART FORMS
Aboriginal people traditionally used the materials available to them to symbolise the Dreaming and their world. As a result, art forms varied in different are-as of Australia.
In the central desert, ground drawing was a very im-portant style of art, and throughout Australia rock art as well as body painting and decoration were com-mon, although varying in styles, method, materials and meaning. There is and was a wide range of tradi-tional Aboriginal art forms.
05
BARBARA WEIR
STORY
GRASS SEED DREAMING
Synthetic Polymer on Canvas120 x 90 cm
2004
Barbara Weir was born in 1945 at what was formerly
known as Bundy River Station in the region of Utopia,
240 km northeast of Alice Springs. Her country is Atnwen-
gerrp and her language is Anmatyerre and Alyawarr.
Barbara‘s mother is Aboriginal and her father is Irish, and
because she was a child of mixed parentage she was
taken away from her family at the age of nine. During
these years she lost contact with her family, but was de-
termined to return and reclaim her heritage.
In the late 1960s she finally returned to Utopia with her
six children, to be reunited with the famous late Emily
Kame Kngwarreye who had looked after her as a small
child. She began to relearn the languages of her peo-
ple. Through her renewed special relationship with Emily
Kngwarreye, Barbara‘s talent and interest in art was en-
couraged and began to flourish.
Barbara Weir‘s Dreamings are: Bush Berry, Grass Seed,
Wild Flower and My Mother‘s Country, which she paints
with an explosive mixture of Aboriginal spirituality and
modern white culture. She is represented in major priva-
te and public collections including the Holmes a Court
Collection and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
In the Utopia region, there are many varieties of grasses to be
found. One such type is found in the spinifex, sand plains, and
sandhills that produce a seed that is collected, crushed and
made into a paste to produce a bread that the people eat.
This grass can grow up to 15 cm high and is reddish in colour.
It is found throughout the year, but is particularly abundant
after a fall of rain. Due to the grazing of cattle and rabbits the
grass is not as plentiful and the seeds are harder to collect.
In years gone, the Aboriginal people collected these seeds in
a most unusual way. Due to the seeds ripening at different sta-
ges, many would fall to the ground and be covered by sand
and lost from view. The Aboriginal people would look for the
nesting site of a particular ant.
This ant, collected the seeds, and ate a certain portion and
then discarded the rest. The discarded seeds would be found
in a pile just outside the nest, where it was collected, cleaned
and then ground into a thick paste to produce the damper or
bread - an important source of food for the Aboriginal people.
The practice of making this bread is not in much use today,
due to the introduction of ready made bread.
This grass is important to Barbara. The small brush strokes in
warm colours overlap and weave to create a swaying effect
like the movement of native grass. The Dreaming for this grass
seed has been passed down to her by her ancestors.
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07
ANNA PRICE PETYARRE
STORY
SANDHILLS AND WATERCOURSE
Acrylic on Canvas148 x 90 cm
2008
Anna Price Petyarre is an eastern Anmatyerre woman,
born at Utopia in 1960. Anna‘s home is Atneltyeye,
Boundary Bore, on the Utopia Homelands, approximate-
ly 220 km from Alice Springs.
She lives there with her family. She is a grandmother with
five grandchildren. Anna, whose mother was the late ar-
tist Glory Ngale, has painted since her early childhood.
She is related to Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kudditji
Kngwarreye through her grandfather, who was a brother
of Emily and Kuddltji‘s father.
Her subjects include Bush Yam and Yam Seed Dreamings,
which are associated Dreamings from her grandfather’s
and father’s country at Atneltyeye, or Boundary Bore. As
a traditional Aboriginal women involved in sacred cere-
monies, Anna also paints Awelye-ceremonlal body paint
designs - related to women‘s ceremony.
Amongst these is the story of women painting up for ce-
remony inside a cave, singing of how to attract a man,
and of the bush foods preferred by interested suitors. The
women also learn the laws that stipulate that they must
only encourage the interests of men of a certain clan
relationship to themselves.
Anna‘s more recent work has focused on images of her
ancestral country, the finely delineated structures show-
ing the terrain of the sandhill and bush country, often
with markings that reveal waterholes and ceremonial
sites.
She is renowned for her line painting technique and for
the care and pride she takes in her work, producing intri-
cate and sensitive paintings that relate to the traditional
culture of her Anmatyerre heritage.
In this painting Anna Petyarre illustrates multi-layered elements
associated with her country Atneltyeye, or Boundary Bore, on
the Utopia Homelands. She says ‘There are sandhills and hills
and rivers - big ones and little ones.“
In the tradition of ancient sand drawings, Anna has painted
her country from an areal perspective. The finely dotted lines
trace the shapes of the sandhills and watercourses that run
through her homelands.
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09
KATHLEEN PETYARRE
STORY
ARNKERRTHE - MOUNTAIN DEvIL LIzARD
Acrylic on Linen120 x 170 cm
2009
Kathleen Petyarre was born at Atnangkere, an important
water soakage for Aboriginal people on the western
boundary of Utopia Station, 150 miles north-east of Ali-
ce Springs in Australia‘s Northern Territory. She belongs
to the Alyawarre/Eastern Anmatyerre clan and speaks
Eastern Anmatyerre, with English as her second langua-
ge. Kathleen, with her daughter Margaret and her sisters,
settled at Mosquito Bore at Utopia Station, near her bir-
thplace. She started working in batik in 1977 when an
adult education instructor, Jenny Green, arrived in Uto-
pia and organised batik workshops.
In 1996 she was the winner of the 13th Telstra National
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Contro-
versy arose in 1997 when Petyarre‘s estranged partner
of ten years, Ray Beamish, claimed that he had had a
hand in the execution of the winning painting. This con-
troversy, which shook the Aboriginal art market at the
time, resulted in much stricter emphasis being put on
the documentation of authorship in Aboriginal pain-
tings. Her name was eventually cleared, and she retai-
ned her award.
Her considerable reputation as one of the most original
indigenous artists has since been confirmed nationally
and internationally by her regular inclusion in exhibitions
at the most reputed museums and galleries. The last few
years, from about 2003-2004 onwards, have seen a bol-
der style emerge, with clusters of larger dots and stron-
ger lines alongside the very fine textures for which the
artist is known. While this style has been decried in some
quarters as being less refined, it has also been hailed
as being a logical artistic development towards a more
powerful and dramatic mode of expression, „perhaps
more abstract, certainly more modern in its technicality
and presentation“.
This painting shows Kathleen‘s depiction of ”Arnkerrthe
(Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming)”. It represents her country,
the Anmatyerre region in Central Australia. The lizard is a thor-
ny animal that can change its colour to blend with its surroun-
dings. It can also stay very still to avoid predators and to coll-
ect condensation on its thorns which runs down the curves
into its mouth.
The cross shape in the middle of the painting shows the tra-
vels of the emu, each path leads to a place - Tennant Creek to
the North (bottom right hand corner). Ti Tree to the West (top
right hand corner), Alice Springs to the South (top left hand
corner). In the bottom left hand corner is a waterhole, which
is a secret place for the Anmatyerre people. It is specific to
men’s business, particularly in Kathleen‘s case for her father
and her grandfather. Kathleen made it clear that women are
strictly not allowed to drink from this waterhole.
Kathleen said that the emu was travelling along, past the wa-
terhole and saw a kangaroo and asked it for water. The kan-
garoo did not have any water and told the emu to return back
the way it came.
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11
JANELLE STOCKMAN NAPALTJARRI
STORY
MY COUNTRY
Acrylic on Linen120 x 180 cm
2009
Janelle is the grand daughter of Billy Stockman, one of
the original members of the early Papunya Tula artists.
She lived at Arnkawenyerr, located in the Utopia region.
Janelle began painting in 2001 and her works have al-
ways been considered very contemporary in style. Her
works do not tell a story of her ancient dreamtime, but
simply an expression of herself as she wanted to do a
new style, and something different to everyone else.
She gained her inspiration through the landscape, a sto-
ry from her past and her dream to be a famed artist like
her grandfather. Her work has been admired by many
and featured in exhibitions nationally and internatio-
nally, as well as being represented in collections throug-
hout Australia.
Janelle passed away in November 2009.
In this painting Janelle has used contemporary techniques
to depict the landscape and the countryside at her home-
lands at Papunya, approximately 500km west of Alice Springs
in Central Australia.
A dynamic artist Janelle combines traditional dreaming sto-
ries with strong vibrant colours to portray the changing desert
landscape.
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13
RONNIE TJAMPITJINPA
STORY
FIRE DREAMING
Acrylic on Canvas192 x 118 cm
Ronnie Tjampitjinpa was born some time around 1943 in the
region near Muyinnga, about 100 km west of the Kintore Ran-
ges in Western Australia (and approximately 500 km west of
Alice Springs). His family travelled extensively across Pintupi
territory, moving through this region and also around Wilkin-
karra (Lake Mackay) which straddles the Western Australia -
Northern Territory border. He was initiated into Aboriginal Law
at Yumari, near his birthplace.
Ronnie originally came in from the bush at Yuendumu and
later joined relatives living in Papunya, where he worked as
a labourer, helping with the fencing of the airfield. He started
painting around 1971 at the time that the desert art move-
ment began in Papunya and over several years he moved bet-
ween Papunya, Yuendumu and Mt Doreen Station. Ronnie‘s
work follows the Pintupi style of strong circles joined together
by connecting lines relating to the people, country and the
Dreamtime. The primary images in Ronnie‘s work are based
on the Tingari Cycle which is a secret song cycle sacred to
initiated men. The Tingari are Dreamtime Beings who travelled
across the landscape performing ceremonies to create and
shape the country associated with Dreaming sites. The Tingari
ancestors gathered at these sites for Maliera (initiation) ce-
remonies. The sites take the form of, and are located at, sig-
nificant rock-holes, sand hills, sacred mountains and water
soakages in the western desert. Tingari may be poetically in-
terpreted as song-line paintings relating to the songs (of the
people) and creation stories (of places) in Pintupi mythology.
Ronnie can be considered amongst the first wave of artists
effectively linking such ancient stories with modern mediums.
During his time at Papunya Ronnie talked of returning to his
traditional country. This became possible when Kintore was
established in 1981 and Ronnie moved there with his family
shortly afterwards. He has been a committed artist since his
earliest involvement with the central desert art movement and
has since emerged as one of the region‘s major painters. To-
day, Ronnie remains an important influence on a new gene-
ration of painters.
This painting depicts the Pintupi Dreamtime ancestors. It is a
traditional custom for the Pintupi Aboriginal men to light bush
fires, during ceremonial men‘s business. The gap through the
painting depicts a large baron sand hill.
The custodians of this dreaming are the Tjangala and
Tjampitjinpa‘s, the Tjapaltjarri are the guardian of this particu-
lar dreaming and they are responsible for body painting and
overall making sure this ceremony is carried out correctly. Ron-
nie is considered to be a leading Australian indigenous artist.
14
15
MINNIE PWERLE
STORY
AWELYE
Acrylic on Linen140 x 200 cm
2004
Minnie Pwerle was born in the Utopia region in approximate-
ly 1910. Her country is Atnwengerrp and her language is An-
matyerre and Alyawarr. Minnie has five sisters, and seven child-
ren including Eileen, Betty, June, Dora, Raymond, and Barbara
Weir who is a well-known Aboriginal artist, also represented by
Flinders Lane Gallery.
Minnie began painting in earnest recently at DACOU‘s work-
shop where she completed a series of linear paintings in Sep-
tember/October 1999. Sonia Heitlinger, Director of Flinders
Lane Gallery organised for Minnie‘s first solo exhibition in 2000
based on the strength of these paintings. These works are bold
and free-flowing and immediately captured the attention of
art lovers. Her first exhibition sold out. Minnies‘ main Dreamings
are „Awelye-Atnwengerrp“, “Bush Melon“, and “Bush Melon
Seed“.
These convey her love and respect for the land and the food
it provides to the people. “Awelye-Atnwengerrp‘ is depicted by
a series of lines painted in different widths and colours. This
pattem represents the lines painted on the top half of the
women‘s bodies during ceremonies in their country of Atn-
wengerrp.
Minnie’s Dreamings consist of elements of ‘Bush Melon’ and
‚Awelyei Awelye - Atnwengerrp’ is epicted by a series of lines
painted in varying widths and colours. These patterns repre-
sent the lines painted on the top half of vvomen’s bodies du-
ring ceremonies in Minnie’s country of Atnwengerrp.
Body painting carries a deep spiritual significance for Aborigi-
nal people. They recognise the creative nature of this activity,
which uses the human body itself as a living canvas for artistic
expression - The use of particular designs and motifs donates
social position and the relationship of the individuals to their
family group and to particular ancestors, totemic animals and
tracts of land. In many situations, individuals are completely
transformed, so they ‚become‘ the spirit ancestor they are por-
traying in the dance.
Body painting ranges from simply smearing clay across the
face to hill body patteming, The body paint is derived from
blood, natural ochres, spinifex ash and emu fat. Elaborate
ground constructions (sand paintings) are also made for the
ceremonies. Patterns must conform to the ceremony being
performed, and the women are not at liberty to adorn them-
selves with designs of free will.
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17
AWELYE WOMENS BUSH MELON
Acrylic on Linen90 x 200 cm
200418
19
WOMENS BODY PAINTING
Acrylic on Linen90 x 150 cm
200520
21
BETSY NAPANGARDI LEWIS
STORY
MINA MINA JUKURRPA
Acrylic on Canvas183 x 91 cm
2005
Betsy Napangardi Lewis’ strong character and confronting na-
ture can sometimes be overwhelming. However behind that
tough exterior is a caring, happy and smiley person. Betsy was
bom in the bush at Kunajanyi, west of Yuendumu but when
she was quite young she moved with her family to Mt. Dore-
en Station. She was brought up by Paddy Japanangka Lewis.
Betsy attended school in Yuendumu where she now lives per-
manently. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists
since 1999. She can be found painting at the art centre every
day where she carefully works on her design, always willing to
experiment with new techniques and styles.
Betsy‘s main Dreaming is Mina Mina, country located far west
of Yuendumu on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Desert.
She shares this country and dreaming with Judy Napangar-
di Watson. Mina Mina is a very important women’s dreaming
site and has a long story in which a large group of ancest
women of all ages travel through the country dancing and
performing ceremonies and creating the country as they go.
Betsy has developed her own very characteristic style while
painting this dreaming. She has a unique control and use of
colour and design with thick and narrow super-imposed lines
of different colours.
She has been able to create and express movement through
her designs and use of bright colours. More than just a depic-
tion of the story, the artist has used the Jukurrpa as a medium
to experiment and evolve technically.
Betsy Napangardi Lewis has been able to create the illusion
of movement with the use of clean lines of different colours. In
many of her paintings she has concentrated on a very small
part of the dreaming story as her main focus is the develop-
ment of her very own distinctive painting style.
This story is part of the Karntakurlangu (Women‘s Dreaming)
which belongs to the Napanangka and Napangardi sub-
sections. During the Dreamtime a group of Napanangka and
Napangardi women travelled through Janyinki on their way
east to Mina Mina, the site associated with this Dreaming. They
carried Karlangu (digging sticks) and collected bush tucker
such as Jintipamta and Purlumtari, which they carried in their
Parraja (food carriers).
Both Jintiparnta and Purlurntari, are varieties of edible fungus,
also known as native truffle, that are found after rains. The gro-
wing fungus forces the earth above it to crack, exposing it.
Women collect the Jintiparnta, squeeze out the juice, and
then cook it before eating. The women also collected Ngaly-
ipi to make shoulder straps to carry coolamon with bush tu-
cker. The central motive in this painting are the digging sticks
(represented by the straight lines) that these women carried
and the curved lines represent the motion of the sticks as the
women dig for Jintiparnta, the edible mushrooms. This grass is
important to Barbara. The small brush strokes in warm colours
overlap and weave to create a swaying effect like the move-
ment of native grass.
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23
BILL WHISKEY TJAPALTJARRI
STORY
ROCK HOLES AND COUNTRY NEAR THE OLGA´S
Acrylic on Linen125 x 40 cm
2006
Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri is a Pitjantjatjara man born in the
1920‘s at Pirupa Akla, country located near the Olgas and to
the west of Ayers Rock. By the time he was a young man, most
of Whiskey’s family had passed away.
Many of his people had begun moving towards Haasts Bluff
mission, about 250 km to the north east. Whiskey joined a
group of people who were about to make that joumey. No
one had yet seen white people, and when they arrived at the
mission, the desert people were completely naked.
Whiskey, along with some of the others, decided not to stay,
as they were frightened when they saw white people for the
first time. Their fear came from the belief that the white people
were Mamu, or bad spirit people, and so the group continued
to travel. They eventually arrived at an area near Areyonga,
where a white missionary Pastor called Patupirri had estab-
lished a camp. It was here that Whiskey and the others first
tasted white man food. Whiskey tells how they would throw this
strange food behind theirs backs, as they did not like its taste.
Whiskey spent a little time with Patupirri before moving back to
Haasts Bluff mission, where he had been told there were plenty
of women. This time Whiskey stayed, and was given his first set
of clothes. And it was here that he met his wife Colleen Namp-
ltjinpa, and never retumed to his home country.
Whiskey practiced as a witch doctor or traditional healer, and
people would come from afar to be treated by him. While li-
ving at the Haasts Bluff mission, Whiskey took a job as cook
for the contract fencers and mustering crew. He came to be
called Whiskers, owing to his long white beard, and the name
eventually evolved into Whiskey. Whiskey began painting in
2004. The main images in his works are the Rockholes near
Pirupa, Ayers Rock, and the story of his own joumeys to Areyon-
ga and Haasts Bluff.
Whiskey is a very traditional man with an extremely jovial per-
sonality. The bright colours in his work are said to reflect the
character of the man - bold, colourful, and strong in spirit.
Bill has painted the country and rockholes around Ayres Rock.
This painting has been created from an aerial perspective, in
the tradition of ancient sand drawings.
The term ‘country’ as used by indigenous Australians refers to
the spirits that reside in location as well as the landscape its-
elf. Bill Whiskey, was originally from Pirupa Akla (Olgas) area.
By the time he was a young man most of Whiskey’s family had
passed away and the people in the area were moving in the
direction of Haast Bluff Mission and he followed along with
them. Whiskey has never been back to his home lands and in
his paintings recall the country of his birth.
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25
STORY
ROCK HOLES NEAR THE OLGA´S
Acrylic on Linen92 x 91 cm
2008
Bill Whiskey was a highly individual artist whose paintings are
characterised by compositional complexity, subtlety of tone
and an innate understanding of colour and composition. He
used the dotting technique to carefully depict specific sites
located in his ancestral Country and the environmental and
geographical features associated with those places. For in-
stance, he often incorporated in his paintings the rockholes
near the Olgas and the ‚Cockatoo Dreaming‘ story.
The latter tells ofa cockatoo that was preparing some kan-
garoo meat for storage until she had laid her eggs. A curi-
ous black crow was jealously watching the proceedings and
decided to steal a portion of the meat. Both birds fought for
some time, creating large holes in the landscape. Eventually
the crow hit the cockatoo with a rock, injuring her badly.
An eagle which witnessed the terrible fight decided to help
the cockatoo, so she told the crow she wanted to make love
to him. While the crow waited in anticipation, the eagle struck
him with hot spinifex wax, scalding his genitals. Shamed and
in pain, the crow slowly flew away.
Tjapaltjarri explained that this was how his Dreaming site
came to exist. The cockatoo is portrayed as a white rock while
the white stones around the site are the cockatoo‘s white fea-
thers, which, in his paintings, are described by white dots.
The eagle is represented by a hill that overlooks and protects
the cockatoo. The roundels or concentric circles in the pain-
tings are both the holes made in the landscape during the
Dreamtime tussle, and also specific fresh-water rockholes
used for generations by Tjapaltjarri‘s family.
Of other marks and patterns in his paintings, he said, ‘They are
the tracks around the rockholes that we follow when we travel
in and out. The next time we come back we know which way
to go. The long slashes of colour that appear in the paintings
depict the empty creeks and gullies along which water flows
during heavy rains‘.
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27
DOLLY PETYARRE MILLS
STORY
YAM SEED AND EMU TUCKER
Acrylic on Linen120 x 90 cm
2005
Dolly Petyarre Mills was born in 1948 at Boundary Bore Outsta-
tion on Utopia Community in the Northern Territory and her
language group is Alyawarr. Dolly lives with her sister, Gloria
(Glory) Petyarre Mills, at Boundary Bore and are full sisters to
Greeny Petyarre Purvis. She is widely recognised as one of
Australia’s leading Aboriginal artists and has work in major
Australian and international collections.
The delicate patterning and subtle colours of Dolly’s work
depicts her country of Alhalker situated in the Utopia region
north east of Alice Springs. She participated in the „Utopia - A
Picture Story“ which included 88 silk batiks from Robert Holmes
a Court collection. This confirmed the artistic credibility of the
Utopian artists.
Dolly depicts Yam Dreamings and Emu Tucker in her paintings.
The yam is one of the most stable types of bush tucker gathe-
red in the Utopia region. Intricate dot work represents the yam
seeds and the flowers. Dolly explains that Emus love to eat the
delicate golden flower that blooms on this shrub during the
hot summer months.
Dolly’s paintings are characteristically bold and vibrant. She
creates a strong linear design by overlaying thicker dots over
the fine dot work.
The seed of the atnwelarr - pencil yam and Ilenyenp - one
of the varieties of cassia found in the Utopia Region, are the
subject of Dolly’s painting. The stories surrounding both of the-
se plants belong to Alhalkere country in the Utopia Region,
northeast of Alice Springs.
The straight line through the centre of the painting and the
diagonal direction of dots signifies travelling, dancing and sto-
ry lines. Intricate dot work represnts the yam seeds and the
flowers of the cassia. Dolly explains that emus love to eat the
delicate golden yellow flower blooms on this shrub during the
hot months.
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EvELYN PULTARA
STORY
BUSH YAM
Acrylic on Linen48 x 195 cm
2005
Evelyn Pultara lives at Wilora Community in the Utopia Home-
lands with her husband Clem and their family. Her parents
(now deceased) were Rosie Ngale and Jack Kngwarreye.
Jack was brother to the late Emily Kngwarreye making Evelyn
her blood niece.
Jack had two wives and five children the only other child by
Rosie is Greeny Purvis the well respected Anmatyerre elder and
famous artist. Greeny and Evelyn both share the plant totem
of their late Aunt the bush yam which is a native subterrane-
an source of food and water. Evelyn represents her dreaming
totem in many different styles, from pictorial representations
of the plants edible root system to the explosive nature of a
germinating yam seed.
It is her unyielding ability to find harmony within a varied palet-
te that sets her apart as an artist. She is heavily represented in
Galleries in France and Italy and had her first solo exhibition at
Walkabout Gallery in Leichardt, Sydney in June 2003 she has
also been part of several group exhibitions, including, most re-
cently an exhibition of Contemporary Aboriginal Art at Gallery
New Quay Docklands, Melbourne.
Her Dreamings, related through haptic adventures in paint, re-
late the tales of the mythic totemic ancestors who made the
land, its people, and its food. Through their telling and retelling
and the depiction of their sites in art, these Dreamings provide
a song-map that locates the water holes, ochre pits, food sour-
ces, and sacred sites of the artist’s country.
It has been said that her paintings impart the rhythm of the
yam corroborree enacted and retold for time in memoriam
through song and dance.
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BUSH YAM
Acrylic on Linen120 x 90 cm
200532
33
FREDDIE TIMMS
STORY
SALLYBUTTE CREEK - SPRINGvALE
Ochre on Canvas90 x 124 cm
1998
Freddie was given the bush name, Gnarrmaliny, after the
place he was born - Police Hole, on the vast East Kimberley
Cattle Station, Bedford Downs in 1944. Growing up on the busy
property, he learned all the necessary riding and stock hand-
ling skills at an early age. He contract mustered on most of
them surrounding pastoral leases, including Bedford, Lissadell,
Mabel Downs, Old Argyle, Texas Downs and Bow River Station.
After the stockmen‘s dispute in the seventies, which resulted in
the removal of most of the people from their homelands, he
was placed first in the Guda-Guda Community at Wyndham,
after which, he and his family were relocated to Warmun/Tur-
key Creek. Bow River Station was eventually granted by the
Government to the Timms Family, with Freddie’s uncle the late
Timmy as Chairperson.
Today, he and wife Beryline, live at the tiny community of Frog Hol-
low where he enjoys the peace and quiet as he paints his stories.
He started painting about twelve years ago, using the know-
ledge and techniques that he had acquired by working with,
and talking with the best of the Warmun Artists such as Jack
Britten, Hector Jandanay, Henry Wambini, the late Rover Tho-
mas and his father-in-law, Paddy Jampinji, who was one of the
finest of the earlier Warmun/Turkey Creek artists.
Freddie travels frequently to attend numerous Group and
Solo Exhibitions within Australia and his paintings have been
collected/acquired by the most notable Galleries, Collectors
both in Australia and overseas.
Sallybutte Creek runs through Springvale Station, joins up with
a tributary of the Ord River and then turns on heading towards
Bow River Station. It should be called a river - too big to be a
creek. Always water in it and everyone knows Sallybutte.
Still used today to bring the cattle into the yards there. Now
most of the mustering is by chopper - it‘s quicker but they miss
a few of the big scrub bulls in the higher country.
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35
GLORIA TAMERRE PETYARRE
STORY
BUSH MEDICINE
Acrylic on Linen120 x 91 cm
2009
Gloria Tamerre Petyarre was born near Utopia and is a spokes-
woman for the Anmatyerre people. She is married to the artist
Ronnie Price Mpetyane and has four sisters - Ada Bird Petyarre,
violet Petyarre, Myrtle Petyarre, Kathleen Petyarre - who are all
artists.
Gloria Tamerre Petyarre first became known as an artists for
her contributions to the Utopia Batik Exhibition which toured
Australia and overseas from 1977 to 1987. She began using
acrylic paint on canvas in 1988, because it gave her greater
freedom of expression and simultaneously better control over
the results.
Her first canvases were created as part of a Central Australian
Aboriginal Media Association (CAAMA) art project. In 1990
she travelled with the exhibiton „Utopia - A Picture Story“ to
Dublin, London and also to India.
Gloria is a very well known and respected artist. In 1999 she
became the first contemporary Aboriginal artist to win the
important „Wynne Prize for Landscape“ of the Art Gallery of
New South Wales in Sydney. Her first solo show was in 1991
and since then she has had many exhibitions, including in
New York.
Bush Medicine Dreaming makes reference to the leaves of a
particular type of native shrub which grows abundantly in the
desert regions of Utopia, Gloria Petyarre’s homeland, north-
east of Alice Springs. The leaves are invaluable to the people
of Utopia as they are used to aid in the healing process. Du-
ring the life of the plant, the leaves change colour and exhibit
different medicinal properties. In this work Gloria captures the
movement of the leaves as they fall to the ground.
This sense of motion is characteristic of her paintings. She
also employs bold brush strokes loaded with colour to repre-
sent the leaves at different times of the year. The green leaves
are gathered by the women and ground with a stone. When
mixed with water this forms a milky solution which can be used
to cure coughs, colds and flu-like symptoms.
The leaves are also collected and boiled to extract their resin,
which is then mixed with kangaroo fat. This creates a paste
that can be stored for six months in bush conditions. This me-
dicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites, rashes and as an
insect repellent.
The leaves can also be made into a mixture to apply to
aching joints or to place on the temples to cure headaches.
The knowledge of Bush Medicine has been passed down
from generation to generation over thousands of years and is
still being used today by the people of Utopia. In painting Bush
Medicine Dreaming, the artist is paying homage to the spirit of
the medicinal plant to encourage its regeneration so that her
people can continue to benefit from its healing powers.
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BUSH MEDICINE
Synthetic Polymer on Linen152x 122 cm
200538
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STORY
MOUNTAIN DEvIL DREAMING
Synthetic Polymer on Linen121 x 205 cm
2006
Mountain Devil Dreaming celebrates the Thorny Devil Lizard
(arnkerrth) that is found throughout central Australia. lt is a
small, fearsome looking creature but it has a harmless, placid
nature and relies on the striking appearance of its ‘thorny‘ skin
to scare away predators. Its other defence is to change colour
to blend easily into the environment.
In Mountain Devil Dreaming, the artist paints the changing
patterns of the Iizard‘s skin. Aboriginal people believe that
during the Dreamtime this small lizard collected and carried
ochres in a pouch located at the back of its neck.
As it walked the land it deposited these ochres in various
places throughout the country. Aboriginal people consider
the ochre sacred and they use it to paint their bodies for ce-
remonies.
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41
JACK DALE
STORY
SIx WANDJINAS - YE LALA
Ochre on Canvas65 x 55 cm
2006
Jack Dale Mengenen, born around 1922, is one of the most
senior law men of the Kimberley Narrungunni people. Dale
paints from his memory of ‚law and the old people‘ so that
these Dreamtime stories won‘t be lost. As senior law man, Jack
Dale has the moral authority to paint the Wandjinas and their
stories.
Dale‘s extraordinary paintings of Wandjinas, the most impor-
tant spirit ancestors of the Kimberleys, and Jalalas or marking
stones, represent some of Australia‘s most important aborigi-
nal art by a contemporary indigenous artist.
„A lot of people died unhappy when we were taken from our
land. We are in the desert now, strange country we don‘t know.
We can‘t give evidence now. How can people understand
what we are telling them, all our symbols have gone, we are
too far away...Lots of people learned white man‘s rules, but
nobody recognised our law...It was bad when we saw loads
of stone smashed up in our land. Many of these were special
stones like in my paintings here. These stones we call Djalala,
which separate our country from somebody else‘s country...
We were taught to care for our country, our mother, it‘s our bir-
thright, it‘s our father‘s land too. We had to abide white man‘s
law, that‘s when misery came on us...Many people too old to
walkabout country. But these Djalala very important for us. It‘s
our evidence that Wandjina created.“
‘These Wandjinas come from Iondra in the Komaduwah clan
estate. They are my proof of ownership of this land just like
the words written on a Title to Land issued by the government
agency that manages land tenure.
My title to land comes from the Narrungunni (Dreaming) and
Whitefellas get theirs from the government. In my way of thin-
king the Blackfellas law is older and more true than the White-
fellas‘ law.’ Jack Dale. ‘Iondra - My Grandad country.’
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43
JUDY NAPANGARDI WATSON
STORY
HAIRSTRING AT MINA MINA
Acrylic on Linen 122 x 61 cm
2006
Judy Watson was born at Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, at
the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Westem
Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her
family, Judy made many trips on foot to her country and lived
for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu, her ances-
tral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts.
These places are rich in bush tucker such as wanakiji, bush
plums, yakajirri, bush tomatoes, and wardapi, sand goanna.
Judy still frequently goes hunting in the country west of
Yuendumu, near her homelands.
Judy was taught painting by her elder sister, Maggie Napan-
gardi Watson. She painted alongside her at Warlukurlangu ar-
tists for a number of years, developing her own unique style.
Though a very tiny woman Judy has had ten children, three of
whom she has outlived. She is a woman of incredible energy.
This is transmitted to her work through her dynamic use of co-
lour, and energetic “dragged dotting‘ style.
She is at the forefront of a move towards more abstract ren-
dering of Jukurrpa by Warlpiri artists, however her work retains
strong kurruwani, the details which tell of the sacredness of
place and song in her culture.
‘This painting depicts a major women’s ceremonial site known
as Mina Mina, located near Lake Mackay in the Tanami De-
sert, north of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory.
The central dark element represents hairstring that is worn as
belts and tassels by Warlpiri women. This hairstring is closely
associated with the Karnakurlangu Jurkurrpa that is acted out
at the Mina Mina ceremonial site. Hairstring is mainly spun di-
rectly after the death of a family member. Women cut their
hair, ritually cleanse it and spin it into yarn.
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MINA MINA JUKURRPA
Acrylic on Linen 107 x 61 cm
200646
47
KENNY WILLIAMS TJAMPITJINPA
STORY
KW 0611224
122 x 91 cm2006
Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa was born in 1950 - Kiwirrkura. He
now lives and works at Intinti, NT. His meticulous painting tech-
nique of linear geometric designs in delicate earthy tones
are hypnotic and replicate those used for decorating shields,
boomerangs and „tjuringa“.
The eldest of two children of Naata Nungurrayi, Kenny spent
his boyhood travelling with his family in the lands surrounding
Wilkinkarra, until they were taken to Papunya by a welfare pa-
trol in 1963 with most of the Anatjari Tjampitjinpa group. He
moved to Balgo Hills during the 1970s together with a group of
Pintupi people, but eventually returned to Papunya. Then, with
his older brother Ronnie Tjampitjinpa, he transferred to the In-
tinti outstation west of Kintore.
Kenny began his painting career in 1988 while at Papunya,
where he was a member and Chairman of Papunya Tula Ar-
tists for many years. He depicts his tribal country around the
area of Kiwirrkura and his father‘s country, Yirrukurlu, located
south of the Pollock Hills. His dreamings include a Python story
and Ngamanpura, a swamp west of Kintore, where a black-
berry of the same name is found in favourable seasons.
This painting depicts designs associated with the travels of two
kuniya (pythons), a male and a female, from Manapinti to the
rockhole site of Karrilwarra, a site north-west of the Kiwirrkura
Community. The snakes’ tracks are represented by the lines in
the painting. At Karrilwarra the snakes created the rockholes,
soakages and sandhills before travelling south-west to Wiluna.
The concentric circles in this painting represent the rockho-
les at the site. This site was also visited by travelling Tingari
people, who later continued their journey in the same direc-
tion as the snakes. Since events associated with the Tinga-
ri Cycle are of a secret nature no further detail was given.
Generally, the Tingari area group of ancestral beings of the
Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, per-
forming rituals and creating and shaping particular sites.
The Tingari Men were usually followed by Tingari Women and
were accompanied by novices, and their travels and adven-
tures are enshrined in a number of song cycles. These stories
form part of the teachings of the post initiatory youths today
as well as providing explanations for contemporary customs.
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49
KUDDITIJI KNGWARREYE
STORY
My Country
ACRYLIC ON LINEN 120 x 180 CM
2008
Kudditji Kngwarreye is a senior man of the Eastern Anmatyer-
re language group from Alhalkere on the Utopia homelands,
about 270 km north east of Alice Springs. Kudditji (pronounced
Kubbitji), was born around 1928. He is the younger brother of
renowned Utopia artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye.
As a young man Kudditji worked as a stockman on cattle sta-
tions around his traditional country, and took other occassio-
nal jobs including working as a gold miner. He began pain-
ting in 1986, after the Central Desert art movement that began
with the work of senior men at Papunya, began spreading out
to other desert communities.
Kudditji Kngwarreye’s early style consisted of symmetrically
dotted paintings depicting the Emu Dreaming sites and cere-
monies associated with Men‘s Business. During the mid 1990‘s
Kudditji began to experiment, replacing his previous fine dot-
ting style with one that used densely applied paint to create
broad sweeps of colour on the canvas. This imagery created
something similar to the western landscape plane, and the
paintings were romantic images of his country, concentrating
on colour and form of the landscape. Strong images were
being created of the intense skies of the desert rainy season
and the extreme heat of high summer.
These innovative paintings were slow to be accepted, and the
artist returned to the more popular style of his finely dotted
paintings. In 2003 Kudditji returned to explore the looser pain-
ting style, which draws close connections to the later paintings
of his elder sister Emily Kame Kngwarreye, who was one of the
great innovators in contemporary desert art. Kuddtji Kngwar-
reye paints his traditional country, the country for which he is a
custodian, around Boundary Bore on the Utopia homelands.
Significant throughout this country are the Emu Dreaming si-
tes, where major men‘s initiation ceremonies are performed.
The “Emu Dreaming“ is one of Kudditji’s inherited ancestral to-
tems, and is regularly referred to in his paintings. Kuddtji Kng-
warreye has been represented in major international exhibi-
tions and has gained world wide recognition for his traditional
depictions of his ancestral Dreamings.
Kudditji Kngwarreye paints aerial views of his country that re-
flect the changing seasons as well as the areas of spiritual
significance. Kudditji is a very senior Iawman and an Elder for
the Ammatyerre speaking people from Utopia which is situa-
ted some 270 km north east of Alice Springs in Central Aust-
ralia. Using his unrivalled and unique knowledge of his coun-
try, Kudditji began to experiment with the synthetic polymer
paint to eradicate the pointillist style altogether and to use a
heavily loaded paint brush to sweep broadly across the can-
vas in stages, similar to the westem landscape plane, these
paintings were romantic images of his country, accentuating
the colour and form of the landscape including the depth
of the sky in the wet season and in the reds and oranges of
the shimmering summer heat. These ground-breaking pain-
tings expressed Kudditji‘s extensive knowledge and love of his
country in a way never seen before.
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My Country
ACRYLIC ON CANvAS138 x 58 CM
200752
53
My Country
SYNTHETIC POLYMER ON LINEN120 x 90 CM
200554
55
My Country
ACRYLIC ON LINEN60 x 60 CM x 4
201056
57
LIDDY NAPANANGKA WALKER
STORY
WaKiripirri JuKurrpa
ACRYLIC ON CANvAS122 x 107 CM
2006
Liddy Napanangka Walker is a Warlpiri woman born in the
1930s. Part of the senior women artists who have been descri-
bed as the “Painting Divas from the Desert”. Her work reflects
the vibrant colours and textures used in the Yuendumu region.
Mt Theo is Liddy’s father‘s country. Liddy paints her father
Japangardi‘s Dreaming and her grandfather‘s Dreaming.
She regularly visits her country around Mt Theo and west of
Yuendumu. She has lived in Yuendumu, a Warlpiri community
in the Tanami 300 km Northwest of Alice Springs, since it was
first established and has worked in the community in various
pastoral care roles including as a cook.
She started painting on canvas not long after Warlukurlangu
Artists Aboriginal Association was established and is now one
of its most senior members. Liddy Napanangka Walker has
been exhibiting artwork since 1985 throughout Australia and
around the world.
The main motif of this painting depicts the Wakirlpirri tree.
A sweet drink is made from this plant. Boomerangs, dancing
boards for ceremony and other implements are made from
this wood.
This Dreaming travels from Jarrarda-Jarrayi through to Puturlu
(Mt Theo) west of Yuendumu. The Dreaming belongs to Japan-
angka and Japangardi men, Napanangka and Napangardi
women.
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MARY ANNE NAMPIJINPA MICHAELS
STORY
Mn 06111222
ACRYLIC ON CANvAS91 x 61 CM
2006
Region: Nyirripi, Northern Territory
Art Centre: Warlukurlangu Artists
Language: Warlpiri
„One of the standouts from this exhibition is Mary Anne Nam-
pijinpa Michaels. The way she thickly lays on the paint and
drags it quickly around the canvas (as opposed to a more
traditional dotting technique) produces fluid and powerful
works. Michaels‘s confidence is derived not so much from the
medium, but from knowing her stories and her place in (and
of) the land.“
Excerpt taken from „ Desert stories just the beginning“, Sydney
Morning Herald, February 28, 2007.
This painting depicts designs associated with the soakage
water site of Pulinyanu, which is slightly north of the Nyirrpi
Community.
In ancestral times, a group of women of the Nampitjinpa and
Nangala kinship subsections, gathered at this site to perform
the dances and sing the songs associated with the area.
The women are represented in the painting by the ‘U’ shapes,
while the roundels in the work represent the soakage waters
at the site.
While in this area the women collected witjirrki (wild iig) from
nearby trees. They also gathered wood for making wana (dig-
ging sticks). Upon completion of the ceremonies at Pulinyanu
the women continued their travels east.
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NINGURA NAPURRULA
STORY
NN 0611145
Acrylic on Linen61 x 55 cm
2006
Ningura Napurrula Gibson was born around 1938 at Watulka
in Western Australia, south of the modern Kiwirrkura communi-
ty, Ningura Napurrula moved to Papunya in the early days of
the settlement with her husband. She is the widow of Yala Yala
Gibbs Tjungurrayi, a highly respected Pintupi elder who held
significant knowledge of his countries Dreaming stories.
In 1996 she was part of a group of elderly women from Kintore
and Kiwirrkura who began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in
their own right. Characteristic of her work is a strong dyna-
mism and rich linear design-compositions created with heavy
layers of Acrylic paint.
Ningura Napurrula participated in an initial Papunya Tula Ar-
tists exhibition in 1996 and she has been featured in several
group shows in Sydney, Melbourne and Darwin in 1999. She
had her first solo exhibition with William Mora Aboriginal Art
in 2000, and participated in the impressive Kintore Women‘s
Painting for the Papunya Tula retrospective at the Art Gallery
of New South Wales.
The roundel in the centre of this painting depicts the rockhole
and soakage water site of Ngaminya, slightly south-west of the
Kiwirrkura Conununity in Western Australia In ancestral times a
group of women travelled to this site from further west, gathe-
ring at Ngaminya to perform the dances and sing the songs
associated with the area.
They also spun hair-string with which to make nyimparra (hair-
string skirts), which are worn during these ceremonies. The
comb-like shapes in this painting depict the nyimparra.
While at the site the women also gathered the edible berries
known as kampurarrpa, or desert raisin, from the small shrub
Solanum centrale. These berries can be eaten straight from
the bush, but are sometimes ground into a paste and cooked
in the coals to form a type of damper. The small black circles
in this painting represent the kampurarrpa.
The small red circles represent pura (bush tomato), from the
plant Solanum chippendalei, which the women also collec-
ted. The women later continued their travels north-east to Wir-
rul, Walkalkarra and Wilkinkarra (Lake Mackay).
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TJUNKIYA NAPALTJARRI
STORY
TN 0511220
Acrylic on Linen91 x 91 cm
2005
Tjunkiya was born around 1927: the main biographical refe-
rence work for the region gives a date of circa 1927; while the
Art Gallery of New South Wales suggests circa 1930. The am-
biguity around the year of birth is in part because Indigenous
Australians operate using a different conception of time, often
estimating dates through comparisons with the occurrence
of other events.
‚Napaljarri‘ (in Warlpiri) or ‚Napaltjarri‘ (in Western Desert dia-
lects) is a skin name, one of sixteen used to denote the sub-
sections or subgroups in the kinship system of central Australi-
an Indigenous people.
These names define kinship relationships that influence prefer-
red marriage partners and may be associated with particular
totems.
Although they may be used as terms of address, they are not
surnames in the sense used by Europeans. Thus ‚Tjunkiya ‚ is
the element of the artist‘s name that is specifically hers.
A Pintupi speaker, Tjunkiya was born in the area northwest of
Walungurru (known as Kintore, Northern Territory), near the
Western Australian border, and west of Alice Springs), after
which her family moved to Haasts Bluff. She became second
wife to Toba Tjakamarra, father of one of the prominent found-
ers of the Papunya Tula art movement, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula.
At Haasts Bluff she had ten children: these included sons Billy
Rowe and Riley Rowe, both of whom painted for Papunya Tula,
and daughter Mitjili (born c. 1948), who married Long Tom Tja-
panangka and went on to paint at Haasts Bluff. From Haasts
Bluff the family moved to Papunya and in 1981 to Kintore.
This painting depicts designs associated with the rockhole site
of Umari, situated in sandhill country east of Mt Webb in Wes-
tem Australia. The lines in the painting represent the puli (rocky
outcrops) and tali (sandhills) surrounding the site.
A number of women gathered at Umari to perform ceremo-
nies. The women, one of the Nangala kinship subsection and
the others of the Napaltjarri kinship subsection, later travelled
towards the east.
One of the stories associated with the area concerns a rela-
tionship between man of the Tjakamarra kinship subsection
and a woman of the Nangala kinship subsection. This is a mo-
ther-in-law relationship, which is taboo in Aboriginal culture.
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65
WENDY DARBY
STORY
COUNTRY
Acrylic on Canvas107 x 105 cm
2009
Wendy darby was born in Port Hedland and grew up in the
bush community at Yadeyerra, a cattle station belonging to
her people just outside Pt Hedland. In the early years Wen-
dy lived a traditional life with her family, with the old people
teaching the young people all about the places, plants and
animals of the area through their stories. Wendy says: “Through
these stories I learnt all about my country - about bush medi-
cine - how to collect this and that plant and how to use them
for various ailments, as pastes or liquids to drink. I’ve been all
around there. Been everywhere. All the old people used to live
there and work at the station.
I do my painting, I think about my country and what the old
people taught me.” Wendy met her husband, Ricky Sandy, a
Yindjibardi man, when he was a teenager working as a stock-
man at Yandeyarra. They subsequently moved to Roebourne
and have three children. Wendy enjoys learning new tech-
niques and quickly adapts them to her own style. This is reflec-
ted in the ease with which she currently moves between sty-
les. She enjoys a variety of techniques such as sponge, brush
work and dots to create her subtle artworks.
Generally Wendy prefers to use earth colours that are traditio-
nal to her culture such as red oxide, yellow ochre and carbon
black, which are prevalent in the Pilbara area of Western Aus-
tralia. On occasion her use of bright colours, including vivid
blues, captures another side of both Wendy’s personality and
of the coastal region of the Pilbara. Wendy quickly became
recognised for her subtle compositions of drifting colours and
in 2007 was the over-all winner in the Cossack Art Award.
Wendy says of this painting: “This is my country. My grandpa-
rents, mother, father and family went hunting all over here loo-
king for bush tucker.
As a child I would go walking through it with my mother and
father looking for bush food. Everywhere, just walking through
this beautiful country we call home, hunting for goanna, kan-
garoo and emu, into the sandy country where bush food was
found, and to the rivers and soaks.
Our grandparents would look for bush medicine. The beau-
ty of the wild flowers blossoming around the soaks and on
the river banks of this desert land. This is my family country.
If we were hunting goanna through the river sand and it went
over rocks and we lost its tracks, we would go up to higher
ground to see where it was going. When I paint my country, I
first paint the background of the painting in different patterns
of browns and reds, the colours of our ground. Then I paint
the colours of the trees, plants and flowers against this back-
ground.
In this panting I have painted a river fiowing through our coun-
try - the Yule River. We catch lots of fish here.” Wendy paints
her country from an aerial perspective showing the patterns
of colour and the variations of landscape as if looking down
over the land.
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WENTJA NAPALTJARRI
STORY
ROCKHOLES WEST OF KINTORE
Acrylic on Linen92 x 92 cm
2009
Wentja Napaltjani was bom in the bush at Malparinga in the
Gibson Desert, and grew up west of Kintore in her father‘s
country. Wentja, who is the daughter of one of the founders of
the Papunya Tula desert painting movement, Shorty Lungkata
Tjungurrayi, has been painting all of her life.
Her first paintings were collaborative, helping out the men in
the family with their work. While they painted the stories or ico-
nographic elements, Wentja did the in-flll dottlng, characteris-
tic of the Pintupi desert artists.
Wentja‘s own career began when she created her first pain-
tings for Watiyawanu Artists at Amunturrngu. Since that time
Wentja has achieved high recognition for her work and in
2002 she was a Finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander Art Award. The main subjects for Wentja‘s
paintings are Blue Tongue Lizard and Water Dreaming stories,
handed down from her father. Wentja‘s paintings are less geo-
metric than her father‘s and show a softening of iconography
through the use of intricate, finely-worked dots. This soft dotting
technique is characteristic of many of the Mt Liebig women
artists with whom she paints at Watiyawanu Arts Centre.
Wentja‘s palette reflects the warm colours of the central de-
sert country. Wentja is a highly individual artist little influenced
by other painters working around her and has developed a
distinctive and consistent style characterized by subtle vari-
ations in colour and texture. She loves to paint and works for
many hours each day squatting on the concrete on the front
porch of her house, surrounded by family and pet dingoes.
The dingoes get whacked off the canvas each time they stray
onto it with a long stick kept handy for this purpose. Wentja
lives at Mt Liebig with her husband, Ginger Tjakamarra (son
of well known artist Makinti Napanangka), and with her sons.
She has three sisters who are also well known artisls - Wentja,
Tjunkiya, and Linda Syddick.
In this painting Wentja depicts her father, Shorty Lungkata
Tjungurrayi’s country, west of Kintore, and it relates back to the
time when Shorty, Wentja and the family were living a traditio-
nal nomadic lifestyle. It has been painted as an aerial view, in
the tradition of ancient sand drawings. For indigenous people,
the word ‘country‘ means a place plus the Dreamings asso-
ciated with its origins. This image, therefore, represents more
than just a map to the artist; it is also about the ancestral his-
tory and spirit of that country and the Dreamings, or Tjukurrpa,
for which the artist has responsibilities.
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69
GRACIE WARD NAPALTJARRI
STORY
MUNTATI - MY GRANDMOTHER´S COUNTRY
Acrylic on Linen90 x 60 cm
2010
Gracie Ward is the daughter of George Ward Tjungurrayi and
was born at Papunya in 1973 just after the western desert in-
digenous art movement started. As a baby, Gracie moved to
Docker River and later to Warakurna where she commenced
her schooling.
Gracie started to paint in 2004 and was taught to paint by
George and her mother Nyungawarra Ward Napurrula. She
originally adopted a typical Pintupi dot painting approach
using a restrained palette inspired by the colours of her
father‘s homelands.
In an exciting new development in late 2009, Gracie started to
experiment with a much bolder palette. Her works have pro-
gressed to an exciting new level. Together with Esther Bruno
Nangala, Gracie represents an exciting view of the future of
desert art. Gracie Ward Napaltjarri has a son and two daugh-
ters and spends her time between Warakurna and Alice
Springs.
Muntati is the women’s site that Gracie’s paternal grandmo-
ther was custodian of. Gracie paints the creeks, rocky out-
crops and mountains and sand hills of the site as well as the
movement of the women through the country to Muntati whe-
re they performed ceremonies before travelling onwards.
Typical of much aboriginal art, whilst some of the iconogra-
phy Gracie uses, such as that representing rock holes, is di-
rectly referable to a specific landform, much is abstract or has
multiple meanings.
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71
JEANNIE MILLS PWERL
STORY
ANATY
Acrylic on Canvas90 x 45 cm x 2
2010
Being one of Mbantua Gallery’s nurtured younger artists, it is
exciting to see Jeannie develop into an established and ta-
lented artist. It is an exhilarating chapter for her as she spear-
heads through to the future, as part of the next generation of
Aboriginal artists keeping the culture and tradition alive for
generations to come.
Although initially shy, Jeannie is open and emits a pride in her
work and teaching about elements of the bush. When she
smiles and laughs, it is truly genuine and friendly.
Until recently, Jeannie lived not too far from the Utopia Clinic in
a camp which was named “Jeannie’s camp” by the people,
clearly giving the impression of the respect and leadership
she has amongst them. Jeannie is also a ngangker (traditi-
onal healer or doctor) where she says she was taught of the
ancient bush medicines by her father and makes some that
can be used by all in Utopia for free.
In 2008, Jeannie’s large Anaty painting was accepted in the
2008 NATSIAA, the most prestigious Aboriginal art award in
Australia. Cheerful and good spirited, Jeannie has close family
connections to some of Australia’s top names in art. Her mo-
ther is well known Utopian artist Dolly Mills and her uncle the
late Greeny Purvis, a successful entrant in the 215‘ NATSIAA.
Her great aunt is the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, dubbed by
art experts as one of the world’s best modem and abstract ar-
tists. It is quite evident that through these influences that Jean-
nie began to paint, bringing her own style and dynamic to the
world of Aboriginal Art. Paintings by Jearmie predominately re-
present the flower and seeds of the Anaty (desert yam or bush
potato), which she enjoys collecting in her homeland.
Jearmie’s distinct style for her story was created in 2004 for
Mbantua Gallery and its captivating energy has thrust her
ame throughout Galleries nationwide.
Jeannie paints the Anaty (Desert Yam or Bush Potato, Ipomoea
costata) story from her father’s country, Irrwelty in Alyawarr
land North East of Alice Springs. This yam grows underground
with its viny shrub growing above ground up to 1 metre high. It
is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large
pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swol-
len root of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet
potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food
for the desert aborigines where it can be harvested at any
time of the year.
Some can be found as big as a person’s head. In this painting,
Jeannie depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty
and its flower (brush work).
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73
MIRDIDINGKINGATHI JUWARNDA SALLY GABORI
STORY
MY COUNTRY
Synthetic Polymer on Linen151 x 101 cm
2009
Born and raised on the remote Bentinck Island off the coast of
Queensland circa 1924, she was moved to Mornington Island
by Methodist missionaries in 1948. Almost from the moment
she picked up a paintbrush. Gabori was recognised as one of
the leading lights of recent Indigenous painting. She has now
held five solo shows and been included in group exhibitions in
Singapore, Seoul, Auckland and Darwin.
In 2007 alone, she held two solo shows at Alcaston Gallery in
Melbourne and exhibited in 2008 and 2009 at the Tim Melvil-
le Gallery in Auckland. She has also become something of a
star in the awards system, becoming a finalist in the Western
Australian Indigenous Art Award, the Togart Contemporary Art
Award, the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander
Art Award, the xstrata Coal Emerging Indigenous Artist Award
and the ABN AMRO Emerging Artist Award. She was also inclu-
ded in the 2009 Korean International Art Fair.
„Her tribal name is Mirdidingkingathi Juwarnda. Juwarnda
means dolphin, which is her totemic sign, and Mirdidingkinga-
thi means born at Mirdidingki, in her country on the south side
of Bentinck Island” says linguist Nicholas Rollo David Evans,
who has worked in the region.
She lived a completely traditional life, with practically no con-
tact with non-Kaiadilt people, fishing and gathering shellfish
and vegetable foods, and maintaining the stonefish walls
around the shores of Bentinck Island.
Sally Gabori began painting in 2005 at the Mornington Island
Art. Her immediate love of paint and the full spectrum of co-
lour offered to her, triggered an outpouring of ideas including
depicting her country and her ancestral stories. Whilst her
works are immediately recognised as abstraction, her fascina-
tion with colour seems as significant as the content itself.
A closer look, the country, colour and minds eye combine to
impart to the viewer a real and intimate sense of who Sally
Gabori is and where she is from.
„This is my country on Bentinck Island. It is a mangrove swamp.“
Sally Gabori.
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75
GORDON SYRON
STORY
SELF PORTRAIT
Oil on Canvas102 x 82 cm
2010
Often described as the pioneer of Urban Aboriginal Art, Gor-
don Syron taught himself to paint while serving a ten-year sen-
tence at Bathurst gaol in the 1970s. A defender of Aboriginal
people’s rights to look after their own culture, he uses his art
to expose the exploitation of his people since European co-
lonisation. Syron doesn’t paint dots - he paints the strugg-
le of Aboriginal people. In his major work, “Judgement by his
Peers”, painted in 1978 while in prison, Syron shows the failure
of the criminal justice system to deliver justice to indigenous
Australians.
Gordon has made many significant contributions to his com-
munity, as co-founder of the Eora College with Bobby Merritt,
he was also the first art teacher there. He was the president of
the Deaths in Custody Watch Committee in the late 90s. From
1997 to 2007 his gallery, Black Fella‘s Dreaming supported and
encouraged new, young and struggling artists.
Gordon Syron is a Biripi / Worimi man known for his political
and historical oil paintings. He is a self-taught artist who has
carved himself a remarkable career which has influenced his
peers in the artistic, political and cultural arenas.
The extent of syron‘s work was seen in two retrospectives, the
first in 1998 and again in 2004 at the Australian Museum, Syd-
ney. In 2000 he was the artist-in-residence for the International
Australian Humanist Society. In 2004 two of Gordon’s paintings
were chosen to be displayed at the Athen’s Olympics: and
then toured to Beijing to be displayed at the 2008 Olympics.
This is a beautiful forest where Aboriginal spirits live and look
after the land and Aboriginal people. This is old Minimbah
Land where Grandma used to live. It is Crown Land and my
father‘s name, Robert John Syron is on the map.
This land is near to the old Coroborree Grounds. The mining
companies came through this area and took a foot-deep of
top soil off thousands of acres of land. They took all the ele-
ments and goodness out of the soil. Now the wildflowers don‘t
grow anymore. When I was young I could lean off my horse
and in seconds have an armful of breathtakingly beautiful
wildflowers, I wouldn‘t even have to pick them. This land was
sacred to me that is why I chose to paint about it.
From the series „WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS ONCE GREW‘
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77
ROY MCIvOR
STORY
DYNAMIC ORDER #5
Synthetic Polymer on Canvas120 x 90 cm
2009
Roy McIvor is a highly respected elder of the Hopevale com-
munity north of Cooktown and a member of the Guugu
Yimithirr language group. He is Chairperson of the Arts and
Cultural Centre at Hopevale and has been instrumental in its
development. Roy has been developing his own contempora-
ry art career for many years.
In 2006, the Australia Council awarded Roy a grant to produce
a new body of work for his exhibition at the Cairns Regional
Gallery. Prior to this, he had twice won the Cape York Arts prize
and his work has been included in Story Place, Gatherings
and other leading group exhibitions and publications show-
casing the works of Queensland artists. His work is also held in
the collection of state art galleries and museums. McIvor has
made some significant innovations with his work since recei-
ving the Australia Council grant.
While the artist maintains a strong link to the realm of traditi-
onal symbols and stories, at the same time he incorporates
contemporary stories into his repertoire.These narratives are
explored through contemporary painting and dynamic ap-
proaches to colour manipulation and composition.
He was born at Cape Bedford Mission in 1934 and later mo-
ved to Spring Hill. Both were Lutheran sites north of Cooktown
in Far North Queensland. In 1942, his family and the Cape
Bedford Community were forcibly removed from the mission
by the military to Woorabinda, near Rockhampton.
Roy spent the final years of his formal schooling in Woora-
binda. He recalls being inspired by the wife of a teacher, Mrs
Jarrett. She was always complimenting and supportive of his
artistic ability and was a artist herself.
Mrs Jarrett had said to Roy, „I hope you keep doing art,“ and
these words were the springboard into a life time interest and
working in art for Roy. His curiosity and explorative nature have
been expressed in the development of his artwork. Roy has
experimented with many techniques and concepts for over
40 years, leaving him with a truly unique Indigenous style.
These recent paintings consolidate a life‘s repertoire of inspi-
ration. They recall the emotional feeling he experienced when
he first saw the cave art that is all around his Binthi home-
lands. „In Gugu Yimithirr language we call it Wawu - spiritu-
al satisfaction. It is like an affirmation of perfect balance and
wholeness.“
From the series „WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS ONCE GREW‘
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79
SARRITA KING
STORY
OUR LANDAcrylic on linen
162 x 100 cm2011
Sarrita King was born in Adelaide, South Australia in 1988, the
younger sister of fellow artist Tarisse King, and daughter of the
highly regarded late artist, William King Jungala (1966 - 2007).
Sarrita inherits her Australian Aboriginality from her father, a
Gurindji man from the Northern Territory. The Gurindji came to
public attention during the 1960s and 1970s when they led a
landmark case at Wave Hill cattle station which became the
first successful land rights claim in Australia. This same strong
sense of self and pride fuels Sarrita King in her drive to paint
her totemic landscape.
Sarrita grew up in Darwin in the Northern Territory, where her
connections to her Aboriginality and her land were nurtured.
Experiences of extreme weather and primal landscape have
provided the artistic themes for her work from the time she
began painting at sixteen. Sand hills, lightning, thunderstorms,
torrential rain, fire and desert are among the environmental
factors that shaped her forefather’s lives and also her own. In
painting these elements, Sarrita provides her personal visual
articulation of the earth’s language.
Stylistically, Sarrita King uses traditional Aboriginal techniques
and iconography incorporating alone with them unorthodox
techniques inherited from her father, as well as techniques de-
veloped through her own practice. Sarrita King‘s art, a fusion
of the past and present and a projection towards the future,
represents the next generation of artists who have been influ-
enced both by their indigenous history and their current Wes-
tern upbringing.
Sarrita King paints in Adelaide in a studio she shares with her
sister. She has been included in over 20 exhibitions, is represen-
ted in galleries in every Australian state, included in many high
profile Australian and international art collections, and her
work has been successful at auction in Paris at Art Curial.
Sarrita’s minimalist composition of interweaving lines, broken
but then tenuously re-connecting, evokes her themes of con-
nectedness to the land and to consequence. The weaving
lines represent the tapestry of landscape in its spiritual and
physical aspects, sometimes dense sometimes sparse.
For Sarrita this series of paintings titled ‘Our Land’ is tied to hap-
py memories of holidays spent with her paternal family tra-
velling through their land with the ultimate destination being,
naturally, a waterhole, represented by the circle, in this case
coloured in red. The red lines leading to it represent the child’s
feeling that they are ‘nearly there’ - although this was not al-
ways necessarily the case.
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81
MERvYN NUMBAGARDIE
STORY
WILIWILGIAcrylic on canvas
115 x 115 cm2011
Mervyn Numbagardie says: “I’m from Rama, Yinajarra and
Pujurrjartu. I was born in Wirritiny and grew up in Walmajar-
ri country and at Bikurangu (Johanna Springs) in Mangala
Country, next to Wirtiwirgi my father’s country.’ Mervyn’s lan-
guage is Juwaliny, which is described as a softer dialect of the
Walmajarri language.
“When I was a young boy, we used to travel around from Rama
to Bikurangu (Johanna Springs) with all the families to meet
other relatives. And other family groups used to come from
their clan countries all the way to Bikurangu to visit. When eve-
rything was finished, we all went back home, walking through
the same way we came. Then we went back to Wirtiwilgi and
that‘s when I lost my Grandfather there.”
Mervyn lived around his father’s country on the edge of the
Great Sandy Desert before coming through Anna Plains Sta-
tion to La Grange Mission, now known as Bidyadanga Com-
munity.
Father Kevin McKelson went to pick Mervyn up from school,
which he attended for only one year, and then he started
work at Kurlupariny Station. Mervyn was given the job of riding
horses and working on the station, fixing the water tanks and
windmills. Later he became expert at breaking in horses and
training young men in the tasks of horse-breaking and riding.
Mervyn Numbagardie is married with two daughters and two
grandsons. He lives at Bidyadanga Community. He began
painting around 2005, re-creating the waterholes and traditio-
nal desert homelands of his childhood.
Mervyn Numbagardie states: “I‘m from Rama, Yinajarra and
Pujurrjartu. I was born in Wirritiny and grew up in Walmajar-
ri country and at Bikurangu (Johanna Springs). That is all in
Mangala Country next to Wirtiwlrgi, my fathefs country.
In this painting, Wiliwilgi, there is a waterhole surrounded by
sand dunes (jilji) near a place called Wirrlwirki. My father died
near this place. The hills are called Kulkumirnti and we used to
hunt around these hills with my family.
People came from south, north and east to this waterhole Wir-
riwirlki. When I was a young boy we used to travel around all
this country, going from waterhole to waterhole, getting food
all around, moving with the family. We would gather with all
the other families and meet with relatives.”
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83
JORNA NEWBERRY
STORY
NGAYUKU NGURAAcrylic on canvas
150 x 90 cm2011
Jorna Newberry is a Pitjantjatjara artist, was born around 1959
at Angus Downs. Jorna divides her time between Warakurna,
lrrunytju and Alice Springs where she has family, living between
the traditional culture of her indigenous background and a
contemporary one. When visiting her lands she regularly goes
bush with the women of her community for sacred ceremony,
which is important to her as she has two daughters and wants
to pass this knowledge on to them.
lf she goes camping for several days she will hunt for kanga-
roo and goanna and collect bush tucker like berries, witchety
grubs and honey ants.
Jornas‘ style is abstract and layered to ensure secrecy of im-
portant cultural matters. Working With Uncle Tommy Watson,
She Developed Her Own Style
Jorna began painting in mid 199O‘s at Warakurna, creating
work for casual collectors. Later she joined the lrrunytju arts
centre and started painting for this group.
Over recent years she has worked closely alongside her le-
gendary uncle, Tommy Watson. She follows his instruction to
favour abstraction as a stylistic mode to ensure secrecy of im-
portant cultural matters, rather than taking the more figurative
approach of the Papunya Tula artists.
She says: ‚Tommy has had a big influence on me. He teaches
me to be respectful in the way I paint.‘
WalpaTjukurpa (Wind Dreaming) relates to her mother’s coun-
try at Utantja, a large stretch of sacred ceremonial land that
has hilly country and a large rock hole where many people
come from time to time to paint up, dance and do ceremony.
lt is country filled with kangaroos, camels, rock wallabies and
birds. „The wind ceremony forms winds... creates air to cool
the lands...“
She explains that wind also helps in hunting as being down
wind from animals makes it easy to hunt successfully. ln pain-
ting this story Jorna uses a very vibrant palette with circles and
lines to describe the movement of the wind and its eddies as
its size gets bigger and bigger.
84
85
ALMA NUNGURRAYI GRANITES
STORY
STAR DREAMINGAcrylic on canvas
183 x 61 cm2011
Born into a family of great painters, Alma Nungurrayi Granites
is a Warlpiri woman who lives at and works at Yuendumu and
is known for her majestical renderings of the night sky. Alma is
custodian of the Seven Sisters Dreaming. This cluster of seven
stars which comprise the constellation Taurus, known also The
Pleiades, represents seven sisters of the Napaljarri skin group.
Jukurra, the morning star, is a Jakamarra man who was in love
with the seven sisters, and chased them across the night sky.
In a final attempt to escape from him, the sisters turned them-
selves into fire and ascended to the heavens to become stars.
Her work has been successfully placed in the Holmes a Court
Collection, the Burkhardt-Felder Museum of Switzerland and
the ARTCOL Collection of Seattle.
The Napaljarri-warnu Jukurrpa (seven sisters Dreaming) de-
picts the story of the seven ancestral Napaljarri sisters who are
found in the night sky today in the cluster of seven stars in the
constellation Taurus, more commonly known as the Pleiades.
The Pleiades are seven women of the Napaljarri skin group
and are often depicted in paintings of this Jukurrpa carrying
the Jampijinpa man ‘wardilyka’ (the bush turkey [Ardeotis
australias]) who is in love with the Napaljarri-warnu and who
represents the Orion‘s Belt cluster of stars. Jukurra-jukurra, the
morning star, is a Jakamarra man who is also in love with the
seven Napaljarri sisters and is often shown chasing them ac-
ross the night sky.
In a final attempt to escape from the Jakamarra the Napaljar-
ri-warnu turned themselves into fire and ascended to the hea-
vens to become stars. The custodians of the Napaljarri-warnu
Jukurrpa are Japaljarri/Jungarrayi men and Napaljarri/Nun-
garrayi women. Some parts of the Napaljarri-warnu Jukurrpa
are closely associated with men’s sacred ceremonies; Yanjirl-
pirri Jukurrpa (Star Dreaming)
This ceremony tells of the journey of Japaljarri and Jungarrayi
men who travelled from Kurlurngalinypa (near Lajamanu) to
Yanjirlypirri (west of Yuendumu) and then on to Lake Mackay
on the West Australian border. Along the way they performed
‘kurdiji’ (initiation ceremonies) for young men. Women also
danced for the ‘kurdiji’. The site depicted in this canvas is Yan-
jirlypiri (star) where there is a low hill and a water soakage.
The importance of this place cannot be overemphasized as
young boys are brought here to be initiated from as far as
Pitjanjatjara country to the south and Lajamanu to the north.
ln contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is
used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other ele-
ments.
Often depicted in paintings for this Jukurrpa is the female star
Yantarlarangi (venus - the Evening Star) who chases the se-
ven Napaljarri sisters for having stolen the night from her.
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87
NYREE NGARI REYNOLDS
STORY
BRINGING THEM HOME
Acrylic and natural ochre on canvas60 x 61 cm
1997
Nyree ( Ngari ) Reynolds was born in 1948 in Wollongong, New
South Wales and belongs to the Gamilaraay language group.
She is a Certificate 4 in Workplace Training and Assessment
trainer as well as an experienced art tutor based in the Cen-
tral West of NSW who has and continues to facilitate art work-
shops for disabled adults; people with mental health issues; in
drug and alcohol rehabilitation centres, with Indigenous and
non-Indigenous children; youth at risk as well as with the Abo-
riginal offenders at Bathurst Correctional Centre.
She also taught Aboriginal art at Bathurst and Orange TAFE
campuses. Nyree’s paintings depicting the Aboriginal child-
ren of the Stolen Generations have been described thus…’in
these ephemeral and quite beautiful works, the figures float
surreal across the vivid Australian outback.
The works evoke a sense of loss and heartbreak. Nyree has
shown through her work that she is a strong story teller and
is able to more than capably get her message across to the
viewer.’ The use of red ochre from Mudgee features strongly in
the figures in Nyree’s work and the majority of her paintings
contain sand from the Illawarra, which connects her with her
birthplace.
This painting tells part of the story of the ‘Bringing Them Home:
Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aborigi-
nal and Torres Strait Islander Children from their Families ( 1997
)’. It’s 10 years since this report was brought down and there
are still countless stories out there of Aboriginal people who
were affected by their being taken from their families.
This painting shows three young Gamillaroi girls from the Sto-
len Generations walking together towards the Warrumbungle
Mountains which is their Belonging Country.
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89
STORY
NO LONGER FLORA
Acrylic and natural ochre on canvas75 x 100 cm
2007
This painting shows the girls from the Stolen Generations wal-
king together, walking proudly, no longer being classed as flo-
ra or fauna due to the result of the 1967 Referendum which
gave Aboriginal People the same rights as white Australians.
The girls are wearing natural ochre on their foreheads as part
of Ceremony and the lead girl is carrying gum leaves which
is an example of flora that the People once were. One of our
friends says her Grandmother used to be a tree, as was my
Grandmother and all our ancestors after the Invasion and be-
fore the 1967 Referendum. 40 years later there is still a lot of
healing to be done.
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91
STORY
FROM THE STORM OF THEIR PAST TO THE LIGHT OF THEIR FUTURE
Acrylic and natural ochre on canvas65 x 89 cm
2009
The young Stolen Generations children of the Wiradjuri Nation
are led by their big sister out of the suppression of their past
to the hopeful light of their new future due to the Day of the
Apology, 13th February, 2008. They are daring to hope.
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93
ELDERS KNOWING – ELDERS SHOWING; CHILDREN WATCHING – CHILDREN LEARNING
65 x 89 cmAcrylic and natural ochre on canvas
2009
STORY
The young dance teacher is listening .... within the breeze she
can hear the voices of the Elders from years past telling her
stories of the dance, telling her stories of her people. She can
pass these stories of the dance to the little ones who when
they are grown will pass them on to their little ones, thereby
perpetuating the knowledge of the most ancient culture on
earth.
The six elders in the background represent 10,000 years
each...60,000 years of Aboriginal culture, Aboriginal know-
ledge, Aboriginal Dreaming. Then there is the gap where the-
re should be an Elder, but there is not. This gap signifies the
Invasion, the halt to The Knowledge, the end of their world as
they knew it. Nothing would ever be the same again. But now,
quietly and with hope the Knowledge is slowly returning to the
Aboriginal People.
The Elder prepares the gum leaves for sweeping and clearing
the ground before the dance, then the young teacher can
begin her work with the young ones. The grasses in the fore-
ground are the same grasses that can be found where my
Aboriginal ancestor was born near Gilgandra in western NSW.
This painting encompasses the Then and the Now. The Elders
Knowing and the Elders Showing.
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95
WELCOME HOME, LITTLE TRAvELLERS90 x 90 cm
Acrylic and natural ochre on silk canvas2011
STORY
The Spirit of the Elder watches the inner child of the Aboriginal
people who are finally returning home after being taken many
years before from home and Country by Government policy.
She watches over each and every one and loves them dearly.
They want to establish who they are, they want to embrace
their culture that they were not allowed to acknowledge. The
young boy in the foreground needs good role models, he is
floundering ... who is he ... where can he find his own place?
The girls will have less difficulty ... they look on their future with
more confidence.
The young fella on the right mentoring from strong Aboriginal
men ... he´ll do it. Kids ... you can all do it !!! You are strong
Aboriginal women and men.
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97
PROTECTION
48 x 44 cmAcrylic and natural ochre on silk canvas
2011
SUNSET IN COWRA COUNTRY
43 x 48 cmAcrylic and natural ochre on silk canvas
2011
STORY
Protection
The two young sisters look at the storm as it travels around the
afternoon sky. It is in the distance, doen´t look like it will come
their way so they feel safer.
The storm is like their lives, the Aboriginal children of mixed
blood didn´t ever know when it was their turn to be be taken
from family and Country. The storm of removal would touch
randomly but with devastating consequences.
Sunset in Cowra country
The five Wiradjuri children from the Erambie Mission in Cowra
simply ask Why? Why, just because our skin was lighter did you
think it was not right for us to be brought up in the way of our
Ancestors. We have lost so much with that policy.
98
99
DAWN NGALA WHEELER
STORY
RAMHYA
Handcrafted, terracotta clay, underglaze32 x 24 cm
2006
Over the last two decades, a group of Aranda women at Her-
mannsburg (120 kms west of Alice Springs) have established
a dynamic and original form of ceramic art. It is an artform
that draws upon craft traditions, and also upon the potters‘ re-
sponses to their landscape. The artists are particularly interes-
ted in portraying their local flora and fauna. Their work is also
nourished by the tradition of the Hermannsburg watercolour
painters – Albert Namatjira and his followers.
The Indigenous women of Hermannsburg, including Dawn
Ngala Wheeler, have created a distinctive style of terra cot-
ta vessels decorated with small figures of animals, birds and
plants as well as painted scenes and motifs from the local
region. The pottery was established in 1990 when Aboriginal
Pastor Ungwanaka, recalling the sale of clay figures to visitors
in the 1950s, encouraged the local people to revisit their inte-
rest in modelling with a view to creating a viable industry.
The pottery thrived, becoming a source of revenue for the
community and an important form of traditional and modern
expression for the local people. Since then, Hermannsburg
pots have made their way into national and international coll-
ections.
The spectacular and characteristic form that the Hermanns-
burg potters have developed combines a handbuilt pot, de-
corated with imagery vigourously painted in underglaze, with
a boldly sculptured lid.
This pot depicts the ramhya (lizard) which lives in the bush
surrounding Hermannsburg.
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Raycast VisualsPhotos & layout by Maris stoeppler
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