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.
This is my view of the desert, the colour and the shapes after the wind has blown the sand
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.
Anhelengkw (emu) dreaming is the breast body painting depicting the story of the mother emu who runs away and leaves the father emu to look after the eggs until they hatch, he then raises the chicks.
This story is passed down through Maisie’s family and celebrated in dance.
When you fly over my country looking down after the rain you can see the river beds running like snakes slithering through the land, everything looks like patches of green with the spinifex and sacred trees, and the beautiful blue of the water refreshing the land and the dry river beds
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.
The artists of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
Anterrengeny is my Fathers country.
I paint the country that come from, the beautiful landscapes and the many colours as they change during the season.
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 the insects which are ants and butterflies. They catch the the insects with their long tongues.
They have poison spray on their tails, they sprayed me once. We don’t catch and eat them because they are poison. They come out in spring when the flowers bloom, they hide underneath.
Anterrengeny is my Fathers country.
I paint the country that come from, the beautiful landscapes and the many colours as they change during the season.
Anterrengeny is my Fathers country.
I paint the country that come from, the beautiful landscapes and the many colours as they change during the season.