July 2024

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View of Country – Jacinta Pula Morrison

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories, the artists paint their country where those stories sit.

This painting shows the layered landscape of Alyawarr, Central Australia. Knowing your country is an important part of living in a remote community like Ampilatwatja. Knowing when and where to go hunting and gathering, knowing where there is ‘soakage’ (where you can dig for water), travelling with family for ceremonies, and maintaining a connection with the land.

“This is my country, my view of country.”

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My Country – Diane Kemarre Ross

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

“This is my country, it’s the country around Irrultja. This is where we like to go after big rain. After big rain there, we can go swimming. There is always good hunting on my country. It is good for me to paint my country and it makes me feel good.” – Dianne

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My Hunting Country – Yvonne Ngwarraye Bonney

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

Yvonne has painted her favourite hunting country after rain. “This is when the storm ants come and make the goannas nice and fat, the ground is soft for digging honey ants and it’s when the bush foods and grasses come up and grow strong. The country is normally bare with small stones and rocks everywhere, but after rain, everything comes alive.”

Yvonne is a tremendous hunter, she is skilled in reading tracks and reading the land. Painting hunting country is important and special to her.

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View Of Country

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories, the artists paint their country where those stories sit.

This painting shows the layered landscape of Alyawarr, Central Australia. Knowing your country is an important part of living in a remote community like Ampilatwatja. Knowing when and where to go hunting and gathering, knowing where there is ‘soakage’ (where you can dig for water), travelling with family for ceremonies, and maintaining a connection with the land.

“This is my country, my view of country.”

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View Of Country

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories, the artists paint their country where those stories sit.

This painting shows the layered landscape of Alyawarr, Central Australia. Knowing your country is an important part of living in a remote community like Ampilatwatja. Knowing when and where to go hunting and gathering, knowing where there is ‘soakage’ (where you can dig for water), travelling with family for ceremonies, and maintaining a connection with the land.

“This is my country, my view of country.”

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My Fathers Seed Dreaming – Lulu Teece

“Before my father died, he told me and my sister, that if we ever painted, he wanted us to paint his dreaming. His dreaming is the seed dreaming, from his country. I paint that story, it’s important. That’s why i always paint the seed dreaming.”- Lulu Teece

Lulu has a strong passion for bush medicine and provides the community with traditional bush medicine that she makes through facilities provided by the clinic.

This painting is a strong depiction of connection to culture, family and country.

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Bush Medicine Plants

“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.

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My Mother’s Country – Daisy Kemarre Moss

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

Daisy has painted her Mother’s country, “Kngwarraye” country. Kngwarraye is one of the four main skin names of Ampilatwatja.

Bush medicine, goanna and many other traditional bush foods are found here. This is where Daisy’s traditional laws lie.

Daisy paints her country to keep her country strong.

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My Grandmothers Country-Elizabeth Ngwarra Bonney

I still hunt my Grand Mothers country for goanna, bush medicine and yams.

I hunt all year round, hunting and walking through the country makes me happy.  When I look at the distant hills I can feel my grandmother.  Bush flowers are everywhere.

Painting my grandmother’s country reminds about those times.