Artists of Ampilatwatja

Joyanne Pitjara Morton – Atyenh Artna Arnernp (My Bush Medicine)

“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.

Eileen Kemarre Bonney – Tijamburra, My Mothers Country

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.

Robina Pitjara Jones – Atyenh Amper (My Country)

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 Pula Luck – Atyenh Amey Amper (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 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.

Lulu Pitjara Teece – Arrethe, Drinking Bush Medicine

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. 

Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney – Atyenh Anyany Amper (My Grandmothers Country)

I still hunt my Grand Mothers country for goanna, bush medicine and yams.

I hunt all year round, hunting and walking through the country makes me happy.  When I look at the distant hills I can feel my grandmother.  Bush flowers are everywhere.

Painting and printing my grandmother’s country reminds about those times.

Maisie Petyarre Bundey – Artna Tyap (Bush Tucker)

Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney – Flowers and Fairies

This painting is of my Mother’s Country, where the enookecha (kunga berry) trees grow.

After the rain the enookecha come out, the rain makes the flowers and seeds fall to the ground and then the fairies come.
They are sweet, good fairies that live in the enookecha trees and they come after the rain. When we go out we can feel them there.

Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney – Penh Artna Rwa (After Bushfire)

This is the soakage (place to dig to find water) after the bushfire, made by a lightning strike. It burnt the grass down, then the rain came and the grass grows sweet and new. The kangaroos come out for the new grass, so we can go hunting for kangaroos and goannas, it is easy hunting because the land is bare of bush and we can see them

Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney – Tijamburra, My Homeland

My homeland is Tijamburra, Canteen Creek, I love that country, it is my Grandmother’s country and it is the only country that I paint. It is fresh country after the rain and it is always plentiful with bush tucker and bush medicine. There are many soakages (places to find water) and we have names for all of them. You can sit there in the shade of the big trees and I love to camp there, the little children in my family never want to leave and want to swim all day in the cool big swamps