Nyungawarra Patjarr I am painting Yankuntjuntju. It is my grandmother’s country, close to Patjarr. There’s a rockhole close. I like to paint my story, my grandfather’s, my grandmother’s. My father’s mother passed away at that rockhole, that is why I’m painting. My grandmother had two sons, two daughters. [She] passed Read more…
Kungkarangkalpa Seven Sisters’ travels of Central Australia. Wati Nyiru is a lust-filled shape shifting man who seeks to seduce the Seven Sisters and take them as his wives. But he is an untrustworthy tricky man and all the sisters are deeply afraid of him. They travel across the country locked Read more…
Wardapi Jukurrpa ‘This painting is about the way women hunt Wardapi – that sand goanna. He digs holes in the dunes, makes his nest deep inside. Many of the holes all join up. Women hunt Wardapi in the dunes by digging out the holes. Sometimes cover one, and Wardapi runs Read more…
Women Collecting Bush Food Women talking about collecting bush food – where the best places are and the best times, whether seasonal or dependent on rain events – All the women sit with their digging sticks and piti’s [coolamons] around the hearth to talk about these aspects of collecting bush Read more…
Joyrene Ngwarraye Holmes – Wildflowers When I go hunting for aker arlkerl (echidna) around the sandhills of Ampilatwatja I always spot the wild flowers and honey flowers. We tap the Bankias against our hand and get the honey, it is sweet to taste. After the rain and bushfires all the new Read more…
Rita Pitjara Beasley – My Father’s Country “This is my Father’s country. This place is our hunting place. I always go with my daughters and their children, I show them this place and teach them about the swampy country. We hunt for goannas, bush potato, bush tomato and after the Read more…
Anapalaku Walka – Ernabella Design The well-known Anapalaku Walka evolved out of the very first drawings that children made in the Ernabella mission school in the 1940s. The children would often come to the Ernabella craft room (the precursor to today’s art centre) in the afternoon or during school holidays, Read more…
Ganybu (Fishing Net/Drag Net) This is a story from the old times, about how Yolngu ancestors used to live. Here the men are in the Arafura Swamp, catching the fish with a drag net, through the flooded plains and into the fish trap.
Lulu Pitjara Teece – Lizards Hiding in the Flowers The lizards we see them hiding under the flowers waiting to catch the insects. The lizards are geckos that are pale with long tails, they live in a hole that they sleep in overnight and wait until the day to catch Read more…
Beverly Pula Luck – My Mother’s Country Beverly paints her Mother’s country. When Beverly was a child her mother took her all around her country and showed her the bush medicine and bush tucker. The knowledge of the bush plants has been handed down through generation to generation and Beverly still spends Read more…