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 my Great Grandmothers country around Canteen Creek. Long time ago she hunted around this soakage in this country. When I paint, I paint that country, the soakage the bushflowers the sandhills and the distant mountains.
I hunt this country now.
Ampilatwatja is my Mothers Country, I come from a long line of artists.
My family still traditionally hunt and gather, I share my love for the land, plants, flowers and trees, with my children and grandchildren.
My paintings are inspired by the changing seasons and I sometimes collect bush medicine plants which I make into tea to drink and bush medicine body lotions. My favourite is aherr-aherr (lemon grass) which I boil up and then use as a body and hair wash, this always makes me feel right and good.
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), traveling with family for ceremonies, and maintaining a connection with the land.
“This is my Mothers country, my 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 is Antarrengeny Country, sandhill country, my fathers country.
After rain the sandhills are abundant with flowers, grasses and bush medicine plants.
This painting depicts the landscape filled with arrwelth (Parakeelya flowers), alekw (Acacia plants) and aywert (spinifex grass).
I am new to painting. I am a singer and I love to perform, I have a music video. My mum Robina Pitjara Jones and my dad Kelvin Kemarre Ladd are both great painters, and my dad is a singer too. I really like their work but I have my own style. I want to paint landscapes and I want to paint the colours that I see in my land.
“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by grinding 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.
This is my mothers country, Tijamburra, we go hunting there for wild onions, goannas, echidnas and sugarbag honey in the trees. I like to hunt there, there’s water all year round. Even if it doesn’t look like there is, we follow the bird tracks to know where to dig and we find water.
From living here in the remote community of Ampilatwatja, going hunting out bush and traveling for family and ceremonies Eileen knows this land, her 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 is my country out in Utopia an outstation called Soapy Bore it’s my Father’s country, there’s big soakage, hills, bush medicine and bush tucker. All my family paint, my grandmother, my mother and aunties. I like to paint, I think about my country, the colours and my family who have gone.
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.
Arrethe is the bush medicine I brew to make teas. This was taught to me by my Grandmother Molly. I teach my children and my grandchildren how to brew this tea to make them strong and keep our culture strong. This tea is used for coughs, colds and pneumonia. You can also use arrethe to treat skin sores and rubbing skin balms.