The artists of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
These bush flowers grow seasonly in Alyawarr country, some of which are also used in bush medicine remedies.
“When I go out hunting, I like to see all the bush flowers that are flowering and then when I come back, I paint them.”
“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by smashing the plants with a rock, we use the juice and the fibre of the plant.
We collect bush medicine plants when we are out hunting. Different kinds of plants grow during different seasons.
There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”
Bush medicine knowledge is still strong in Ampilatwatja, it continues to be passed down to the younger generations and is widely used.
When the women go hunting they often gather bush medicine. The plants depicted here are found in the country around Ampilatwatja, they are used for soothing skin infections and to make a drink to help with colds and coughs.
Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.
The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories belong.
“My country is called Irrultja, it’s past the hill and the dried-up creek from here, it’s a nice place, my dad’s country too, and my Mum’s country is here in Ampilatwatja. When I go to see my country, we always go to gather bush medicine, we always climb up the hill that’s in the south, we always go there. We like to look out over the land and there are lots of flowers and bush medicine up there. I love my countryside; I see the nice flowers and gather bush medicine for me and my family. I like to paint a mix of wildflowers and bush medicines in all my paintings because it reminds me of my favourite part of my country and when it rains the flowers come out. Yeah, my countryside.”
“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by smashing the plants with a rock, we use the juice and the fibre of the plant.
We collect bush medicine plants when we are out hunting. Different kinds of plants grow during different seasons.
There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”
Bush medicine knowledge is still strong in Ampilatwatja, it continues to be passed down to the younger generations and is widely used.
When the women go hunting they often gather bush medicine. The plants depicted here are found in the country around Ampilatwatja, they are used for soothing skin infections and to make a drink to help with colds and coughs.
Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.
The artists of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
These bush flowers grow seasonly in Alyawarr country, some of which are also used in bush medicine remedies.
“When I go out hunting, I like to see all the bush flowers that are flowering and then when I come back, I paint them.”
The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
I paint the country of my Father and Mother and where they grew up, near Barrow Creek.
“This is the painting of my Father’s country, where I grew up. When we would go hunting, we always climbed those hills. We would take the kids hunting too and take photos of the hills.”
I use bright colours and beautiful attention to detail expresses the love and joy that I have for the country closest to my heart.
This finely crafted hand woven dragonfly is a cheerful reminder of the real dry season dragonflies.
Signalling in the dry season, dragonflies are ubiquitous with dry winds, cool nights and saying goodbye to the wet season! Our ridiculously talented pandanus artists are continuing to push their skills and techniques with these cute dragonflies a fine example of this. Each are unique, hand woven and coloured using natural bush dyes.
Pandanus fibre art is labour intensive requiring a high level of care and fine needlework. Finished works are both functional and beautiful. Women collect pandanus by pulling from the top of a pandanus tree, stripping then dying the leaves using natural bush colour.
This finely crafted hand woven dragonfly is a cheerful reminder of the real dry season dragonflies.
Signalling in the dry season, dragonflies are ubiquitous with dry winds, cool nights and saying goodbye to the wet season! Our ridiculously talented pandanus artists are continuing to push their skills and techniques with these cute dragonflies a fine example of this. Each are unique, hand woven and coloured using natural bush dyes.
Pandanus fibre art is labour intensive requiring a high level of care and fine needlework. Finished works are both functional and beautiful. Women collect pandanus by pulling from the top of a pandanus tree, stripping then dying the leaves using natural bush colour.
This finely crafted hand woven dragonfly is a cheerful reminder of the real dry season dragonflies.
Signalling in the dry season, dragonflies are ubiquitous with dry winds, cool nights and saying goodbye to the wet season! Our ridiculously talented pandanus artists are continuing to push their skills and techniques with these cute dragonflies a fine example of this. Each are unique, hand woven and coloured using natural bush dyes.
Pandanus fibre art is labour intensive requiring a high level of care and fine needlework. Finished works are both functional and beautiful. Women collect pandanus by pulling from the top of a pandanus tree, stripping then dying the leaves using natural bush colour.
This finely crafted hand woven dragonfly is a cheerful reminder of the real dry season dragonflies.
Signalling in the dry season, dragonflies are ubiquitous with dry winds, cool nights and saying goodbye to the wet season! Our ridiculously talented pandanus artists are continuing to push their skills and techniques with these cute dragonflies a fine example of this. Each are unique, hand woven and coloured using natural bush dyes.
Pandanus fibre art is labour intensive requiring a high level of care and fine needlework. Finished works are both functional and beautiful. Women collect pandanus by pulling from the top of a pandanus tree, stripping then dying the leaves using natural bush colour.