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.
The artists of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.
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.
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.
I have a strong passion for making bush medicine, and I provide the community with traditional bush medicine to treat their ailments.
My paintings are a strong depiction of my connection to culture, family and country.
Anterrengeny is my Father’s country. I paint the country that I come from, the beautiful landscapes and the many colours as they change during the session.
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).
When I go out hunting I always like to see the colour in the trees, the light, the dark and the bush medicine plants growing on the sand hills. The colours change at sunrise and sunset. I like hunting and seeing my country.
I love to paint since childhood. My paintings show my deep love for my country and the beauty I see.
The community 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.
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.
The layers of Colleen’s paintings are as detailed and complex as the stories she paints.
Colleen’s painting represents a ceremony that is performed by the women in the community. It involves dance, singing and painting the body in ochre, to celebrate their country and their understanding of bush medicine.
The use of the bush medicine and the edible seeds that come in an assortment of colours, are depicted in many of Colleen’s paintings.
This painting is about singing to country, singing the bush medicine in to existence, maintaining it and where to find it.