I was born in Irrultja, my father’s country. I paint therrpeyt, a plant with red and pink flowers, it is my family symbol. You can suck the flowers to get a sweet honey from. You can wash your body with the leaves to heal sores and clean your body. I paint arreth which grows in the rocky ground and helps fix my sore throat when I make a hot tea from the leaves. I love to paint, I feel happy when I paint, I feel busy and good.
I love to look at the land and bush leaves. My mother paints, her name is Lucy Pula Luck and my Aunties Beverly Pula Luck, Jessie Pula Luck and Juliet Ngwarraye Morton all paint, they are great painters and I want to paint with them and learn. Bush medicine leaves are my favorite to look at. White flowers, leaves and bush tucker – this is what I want to show in my paintings.
This is my Mothers Mothers country, out near Canteen Creek, we go hunting for wild onions, goannas, echidnas and sugar bag honey in the trees. I like to hunt in my country, there is water all year round even if it looks dry, we follow the bird tracks to know where to dig and then we find water.
This painting is after rain, many grasses are out, but the riverbed is still sandy.
I paint the country that I come from, the beautiful landscapes and the many colours as they change during the seasons.
Jerome is the grandson of Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney and son of Sevania Kemarre Bonney, Jerome is inspired by the work of his family, especially his grandfather Alec Pula Lewis and uncle Gunderson Kemarre Lewis. He loves to paint the incredible landscapes found in Ampilatwatja
My Mother, Lilly Kemarre, taught me to paint. She likes to paint her Mother’s and Father’s country from the old days, when they used to live off of the land.
The landscape changes during the different seasons in the year. I paint the dried flowers and bushes from last season as well as the new plants that come after the rain. These plants have special meanings and uses for us. I have been taught how to read the country, and now I teach my children these skills.
Julieanne’s painting’s are inspired by her Mother’s stories of the old days, walking and living on their land, and also of her own experience of life out here in Alyawarr country.
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.
The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
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 time hunting and collecting bush medicine plants to use in everyday life. Taught by her mother and grand mother, Beverly also sings the songs of the bush medicine plants.
Beverly’s paintings are joyous and full of information regarding bush medicine plants.
The artists of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
When I go looking for bush medicine I look around the ground and under the rocks. That is where I will find it
“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 big rain the bush medicine is picked and the roots are dug up to be used.
It is important as my mother taught me this and now I teach my family.”
The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
The seeds are collected under a tree by laying a tarp on the ground and hitting the tree continuously until most of the seeds have fallen. Once the seeds are collected they are then ground with a mortar and grinding stone.
A number of these grinding stones have been in families for generations. Once seeds are ground, water is added and mixed until a damper like substance is formed and placed under the coals until cooked.