In Black + White

IN BLACK + WHITE

IN BLACK + WHITE

Front: Tjulyata Kulyuru Tjukula (Waterholes) 2020, acrylic on linen, 90 x 150cm (detail) Left: Doris Bush Nungarrayi Bush Mangarri Tjuta 2019, acrylic on linen 152 x 122cm (detail)

EXHIBITINGARTCENTRES Artists of Ampilatwatja, Buku-Larrnggay Mulka, Ernabella Arts, Injalak Arts, Kaiela Arts, Iwantja Arts, Ninuku Arts, Papunya Tjupi Arts, Papunya Tula Artists, Tiwi Design, Waralungku Arts, Warlukurlangu Artists, Waringarri Arts

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EXHIBITINGARTISTS Anna Petyarre

Louise Marlarvie

Barbara Weir

Lynette Lewis

Belinda Golder

Maria Josette Orsto

Betty Muffler

Marshall Jangala Robertson

Charmaine Pwerle

Mary Napangardi Butcher

Chris Japanangka Michaels

Molly Miller

Djirrirra Wunungmurra

Mulkun Wirrpanda

Don Namundja

Natalea Holmes Pula

Doris Bush Nungurrayi

Nathania Nangala Granites

Hilary Tjapaltjarri

Robert Nanala Tjapaltjarri

Jack/Craig Anselmi

Selina Teece Pwerl

Jean Ngwarreye Long

Stewart Hoosan

Jill Kelly Kemarre

Thelma Dixon

Judith Nungurrayi Martin

Tjulyata Kulyuru

Katie Morgan Petyarre

Ursula Napangardi Hudson

Langkaliki Lewis

Valda Napangardi Granites

Lilly Kelly Napangardi

Violet Hammer

Liyawaday Wirrpanda

Walter Jangala Brown

Lizzie Moss Pwerle

Yanyi Dunn

introduction

Black and white has been a powerful medium for Aboriginal art over many decades. Early examples include ochres on bark from Groote Eylandt, Milingimbi and Yirrkala in Arnhem Land in the 1950s and 60s – the figurative images of which were typically set against a black-charcoaled background to highlight and ‘frame’ the images and give the impression of them coming to the fore.

With the advent of the Western Desert painting movement in the community of Papunya in the 1970s, artists decided to restrict their palette to that of earth tones of red, yellow, brown, black and white. Images were largely depicted against either a black or red ochre ground. As this movement progressed many Papunya and other Western Desert artists found the use of a minimalist palette of black and white allowed the geometric symbology of creation stories such as those of the Tingari and others to be represented to great effect.

Other notable examples of black and white in modern Aboriginal art include the heavily textured Kimberley ochres by artists such as Freddie Timms and more recently Mabel Juli; the wooden Mimih and Yawk Yawk carvings of Arnhem Land artists from Maningrida, barks from Yirrkala; the patternated Jilamara design of the Tiwi and the extraodinary eight-metre Big Yam Dreaming painting by Emily Kame Kngwarreye in the National Gallery of Victoria.

In Black + White comprises 49 works by 38 Aboriginal artists – ranging from the well-known and established to the emerging. The exhibition demonstrates the breadth of imagery and styles employed by artists from the Eastern Deserts of Central Australia, the APY Lands of South Australia, the Kimberley, Arnhem Land, the Western Desert, Central NT, the Tiwi Islands and Victoria.

Recent works by senior artists - Utopia’s Barbara Weir and the Tiwi’s Maria Josette Orsto – both of whom have painted in black and white for some decades, show that for these talented artists, innovation (which in Weir’s case includes the use of a new medium of ochres and crystal) continues as a feature of their work. Similarly, innovation within tradition is seen in the geometric abstract paintings by Hilary Tjapaltjarri, Robert Nanala, Walter Jangala Brown and Marshall Jangala Robertson all of whom offer fresh takes on classic Western Desert imagery.

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The lyrical image-rich works by senior artists – the Western Desert’s Doris Bush Nungurrayi and the APY’s Betty Muffler – relate the importance of traditional foods and healing practices for maintaining the health of both people and countries.

Works on paper by Victoria’s Jack Anselmi, Arnhem Land’s Mulkun Wirrpanda and the artists from Waralungku Arts of Borroloola show the variety possible in that medium while paintings based on women’s body paint design by Utopia artists Charmaine Pwerle, Lizzie Moss Pwerle and Natalea Holmes Pula demonstrate the direct correlation between art and ceremonial practice.

Talented emerging artists – the Kimberley’s Louise Malarvie and Ernabella’s Yanyi Dunn, Lynette Lewis and Tjulyata Kulyuru – are all young, second and third-generation artists who inspire with the finesse of their work and the fresh interpretation of their country – its sand hills and life-giving water sources.

Susan McCulloch & Emily McCulloch Childs July 2020

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AnnaPetyarre 1. Anna Petyarre, Tali – Sand Dunes 2019, acrylic on canvas, 103 x 63 cm MM3974 | $1,600

Anna Price Petyarre was born c 1965 and is the daughter of the late Glory Ngarla, a well-known artist of Utopia and member of the original batik making group. Price primarily paints Yam Seed Dreaming, her works intricate expressions of the songs and stories associated with her plant totem, the Bush Yam, and its seeds. The Bush Yam has been a staple food and water source for the Anmatyerre people for countless years, and the seeds that form and scatter from the plant are ground up to make flour for damper. During ceremony, it is Price’s duty to pay homage to the yam seeds and give thanks for their abundance and regenerative qualities. By painting to the tempo of a ceremonial song, Price expresses her connection to her plant totem in a permanent medium. In recent years she has also featured the rivers and tali – the sand dunes/hills of her country, depicting these in paintings of great fluidity.

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AnnaPetyarre

Anna Price Petyarre was born c 1965 and is the daughter of the late Glory Ngarla, a well-known artist of Utopia and member of the original batik making group. Price primarily paints Yam Seed Dreaming, her works intricate expressions of the songs and stories associated with her plant totem, the Bush Yam, and its seeds. The Bush Yam has been a staple food and water source for the Anmatyerre people for countless years, and the seeds that form and scatter from the plant are ground up to make flour for damper. During ceremony, it is Price’s duty to pay homage to the yam seeds and give thanks for their abundance and regenerative qualities. By painting to the tempo of a ceremonial song, Price expresses her connection to her plant totem in a permanent medium. In recent years she has also featured the rivers and tali – the sand dunes/hills of her country, depicting these in paintings of great fluidity.

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2. Anna Petyarre, Sandunes and My Country 2018, acrylic on canvas, 150 x 60 cm MM3973 | $1,900

BarbaraWeir 3. Barbara Weir, Grass Seed 2019, acrylic on linen, 45 x 45cm MM4519 | $590

Born around 1945, Weir is a well-known artist from Utopia, NT. She had a close familial relationship with famed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and was one of the younger women of the Utopia batik school. Weir began her painting career in 1994 and has since become a highly popular and successful artist, travelling to exhibitions of her work held around Australia and internationally.

Weir’s paintings represent the once fertile lands of her mother’s (the late artist Minnie Pwerle) country at a time when plants, animals and water (including that considered sacred) were plentiful. Themes of her paintings include grass seed, bush berry, wild flowers and Awelye (women’s body design).

Her two main painting themes are those of grass seeds such as this small work, and an encyclopaedic, evolving series entitled My Mother’s Country.

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BarbaraWeir 4. Barbara Weir, Awelye 2020, ochres & crystal on canvas, 90 x 180cm MM4865 | $10,600

Born around 1945, Weir is a well-known artist from Utopia, NT. She had a close familial relationship with famed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and was one of the younger women of the Utopia batik school. Weir began her painting career in 1994 and has since become a highly popular and successful artist, travelling to exhibitions of her work held around Australia and internationally.

Weir’s paintings represent the once fertile lands of her mother’s (the late artist Minnie Pwerle) country at a time when plants, animals and water (including that considered sacred) were plentiful. Themes of her paintings include grass seed, bush berry, wildflowers and Awelye (women’s body design).

Her two main painting themes are those of grass seeds and an encyclopaedic, evolving series entitled My Mother’s Country. Recent works have seen Barbara incorporate different media including ochres, ash and crystal from her country in her paintings such that this expressionistic work of great texture and subtlety.

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BarbaraWeir

Born around 1945, Weir is a well-known artist from Utopia, NT. She had a close familial relationship with famed artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and was one of the younger women of the Utopia batik school. Weir began her painting career in 1994 and has since become a highly popular and successful artist, travelling to exhibitions of her work held around Australia and internationally.

Weir’s paintings represent the once fertile lands of her mother’s (the late artist Minnie Pwerle) country at a time when plants, animals and water (including that considered sacred) were plentiful.

Themes of her paintings include grass seed, bush berry, wildflowers and Awelye (women’s body design). Her two main painting themes are those of grass seeds and an encyclopaedic, evolving series entitled My Mother’s Country such as this striking monochrome.

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5. Barbara Weir, My Country 2017, acrylic on linen, 120 x 200cm MM2934 | $9900

BelindaGolder

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 230km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the granddaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale.

In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kudditji Kngwarreye.

While most of her work features colour, she also depicts the leaves of the bush plum plants in fluid monochrome.

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6. Belinda Golder, Bush Plum Leaves 2019, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 88cm MM 4484 | $2,700

BettyMuffler 7. Betty Muffler (Biddy Mobbler), Ngangkari Ngura (Healing Country) 2019, acrylic on linen, 167 x 198cm MM4638 | $7,900

Betty Muffler was born in the remote bush area near Watarru near the border of South and Western Australia. Her parents passed away from sickness related to the Maralinga bombings in South Australia when she was a young girl, so she was cared for by her aunties and the missionaries at the Ernabella mission. Betty’s father and sisters were skilled ngangkari (traditional healer) who passed their knowledge on to Betty.

For years she was renowned for her travelling on a donkey throughout the APY Lands working as a ngangkari. Today she continues this practice with clinics and hospitals. In 2018 she was invited to Melbourne to present her traditional healing practices in a forum for the medical professionals at Melbourne University.

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Her ‘healing country’ paintings highlight her reverence for country and the sacred sites that are relevant to her Ngangkari spirit. Of this she says.” “Because I’ve got an eagle’s spirit I can stay at home here, and in my sleep I send my eagle spirit across the desert to look for sick people, then I land next to them and make them better.”

Betty’s soft and intricate black and white paintings have appeared in significant exhibitions in leading galleries and award exhibitions. In 2017 she won the Emerging Artists Award at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards and in 2020 she was again selected as a finalist in these prestigious awards.

CharmainePwerle

Charmaine Pwerle is an Anmatyerre woman, born in Alice Springs in 1976. She grew up on the Utopia homelands, the daughter of famed painter Barbara Weir and grandmother the equally famous Minnie Pwerle - the rights to whose Awelye (womens Ceremony) clan body paint design she has inherited and which she paints. Other famous women painters close to Charmaine include her great aunts Emily, Galya and Molly Pwerle and her extended family members Gloria Petyarre and the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

A fully initiated woman, Pwerle’s work has developed a great vivacity and surety as she herself matures. She has the rights, through initiation and heritage, to paint the stories and the country of her grandmother, Minnie Pwerle, with whom she spent much time as a young woman.

The large circular images in her paintings represents ceremonial sites, the linear design represents the tracks used when searching for food. The small circular designs are the seeds of the bush melon seed and the curvilinear shapes depict ‘Awelye’ or women’s ceremonial body-paint design.

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8. Charmaine Pwerle, Awelye 2018, arylic on linen, 150 x 100cm MM3760 | $4,580

CharmainePwerle 9. Charmaine Pwerle, Awelye 2020, acrylic on linen, 83 x 122cm MM5003| $3800

Charmaine Pwerle is an Anmatyerre woman, born in Alice Springs in 1976. She grew up on the Utopia homelands, the daughter of famed painter Barbara Weir and grandmother the equally famous Minnie Pwerle - the rights to whose Awelye (womens Ceremony) clan body paint design she has inherited and which she paints. Other famous women painters close to Charmaine include her great aunts Emily, Galya and Molly Pwerle and her extended family members Gloria Petyarre and the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

A fully initiated woman, Pwerle’s work has developed a great vivacity and surety as she herself matures. She has the rights, through initiation and heritage, to paint the stories and the country of her grandmother, Minnie Pwerle, with whom she spent much time as a young woman.

The large circular images in her paintings represents ceremonial sites, the linear design represents the tracks used when searching for food. The small circular designs are the seeds of the bush melon seed and the curvilinear shapes depict ‘Awelye’ or women’s ceremonial body-paint design.

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Chris Japanangka Michaels 10. Chris Japanangka Michaels, Janganpa-Jukurrpa (Brush Tail Possum Dreaming) 2019, acrylic on linen, 122 x 61cm MM4991 | $1500

Chris Japanangka Michaels is a midgeneration artist from Yuendumu in the NT. One of his main painting themes is that of Janganpa Jukurrpa (common brush-tail possum dreaming) which travels all over Warlpiri country. Janganpa are nocturnal animals that often nest in the hollows of white gum trees (wapunungka). This story comes from a big hill called Mawurrji, west of Yuendumu and north of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs).

A group of janganpa ancestors resided there.

Every night they would go out in search of food. Their hunting trips took them to Wirlki and Wanapirdi, where they found pamapardu (flying ants). They journeyed on to Ngarlkirdipini looking for water.

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A Nampijinpa woman was living at Mawurrji with her two daughters. She gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla janganpa but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla angrily pursued the women, tracking them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place.

In this painting the brush tail possum man’s tracks are represented as ‘E’ shaped figures and the concentric circles depict the trees in which the janganpa live, and also the sites at Mawurrji.

Djirrirra Wunungmurra 11. Djirrirra Wunungmurra, Yukuwa 2018, ochres on found board, 40 x 40cm MM1367 | $750

Djirrirra (also known as Yukuwa) Wunungmurra is a mid-generation award winning artist from Yirrkala, East Arnhem Land. Her work has been represented in major exhibitions in public galleries and her awards include the 2008 TOGA Northern Territory Contemporary Art Award and Best Bark at the 29th National and Torres Strait Islander Art Award,2012.

Yukuwa (yam) is one of her names and the topic of this work. Almost a self-portrait her works on this theme refer to the Yirritja renewal ceremony in which the spirits of the deceased congregate for one last dance together before heading their separate ways with ritual exchanges of sacred objects, song and dance.

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Yukuwa is a yam whose annual reappearance is a metaphor for the increase and renewal of the people and their land.

This work is made on a piece of wood originally used as part of a stage put down on the Yirrkala basketball courts by the Bangarra Dance Theatre for a performance they flew to Yirrkala to perform. This performance for the community was made to acknowledge the debt Bangarra owes Yirrkala for their generosity in sharing sacred dance since Bangarra’s inception.

The boards were then used as art materials at the suggestion of Stephen Page director of Bangarra.

DonNamundja 12. Don Namundja, Malallark -–Wallabee Net 2018, ochres on Arches paper (framed), 42 x 15cm (image size) MM4402 | $650

Don Namundja is one of Western Arnhem Land’s most senior and respected artists. He fondly remembers painting in the stone country with some of its most recognized artists including Bardayal ‘Lofty’ Nadjamerrel. Namundja had his first solo exhibition in 2004. The freshness of Namundja’s paintings prompted the National Gallery of Australia to acquire two works from the RAFT Artspace in Darwin. He was selected for the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin in 2003, 2005, 2006 and 2014.

Don lives in Gunbanya (Oenpelli) in Western Arnhem Land and can often be found painting under the verandah at Injalak Arts.

This small work tells a big story of the region’s fish and the traditional net in which they’re trapped.

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Doris Bush Nungarrayi 13. Doris Bush Nungarrayi, Bush Mangarri Tjuta 2019, acrylic on linen, 152 x 122cm MM5002 | $5800

Doris Bush Nungarrayi was born in 1942 at Haasts Bluff and later moved to Papunya. One of the founding artists of Papunya Tjupi Arts at Papunya, she has developed over the last 14 years to become an esteemed and innovative artist whose work is keenly sought.

In this painting, she records memories from her past as a girl learning from her mother at Wilura and Nyumannu - a Dreaming site just to the south east of the remote Aboriginal community of Kintore in the Northern Territory.

While painting, Doris talked of her and her mother handling different types of Mangarri (food) - enacting the handling and eating of Mai (food) and drinking Kapi (water). She spoke of the breaking open of Pura (big wild bush tomatoes) to eat the flesh and the collecting and eating of ilyuru (a sweet natural cottoncandy-like bush food).

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Along with these foods, her painting includes the different tools necessary for food gathering including wana (digging sticks) and other elements of this fertile landscape such as witya (trees) - the memory of which she pays tribute to while painting by sitting under a large tree outside the art centre at Papunya.

She also recalls the whole family sitting around ‘nikiti way’ (without clothes in the old days) and without any other Western tools, saying “Billy can wiya! Blanket wiya! Just running around!” (no billy cans, no blankets - just running around).

Hilary Tjapaltjarri 14. Hilary Tjapaltjarri Nginkulwalunya 2016, acrylic on linen, 91 x 46cm MM4391 | $1500

Hilary Tjapaltjarri was born at Mintjilpirri, south west of Kintore in approximately 1941, who learnt about the Dreamtime stories from his father. His family lived for a time at Haasts Bluff and Hilary lived with late artist Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula’s family at Haasts Bluff - working as a stockman for many years.

Tjapaltjarri first became curious about painting when he saw the Papunya Tula Artists (PTA) painting in the 1970s. The teacher Geoffrey Bardon gave him some boards to paint, however it was not until 1985 that he began his artistic career and began painting regularly for the Papunya Tula Artists. His traditional country is south-west of Kintore and his paintings usually depict the Snake Dreaming, as well as Tingari designs associated with sacred sites in his ancestral lands. The striking compositions and colours he uses imbue his work with a characteristic sense of passion for his people and country.

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This painting depicts designs associated with the swamp site of Nginkulwalunya, slightly west of the Kintore community. In ancestral times, a large group of Tingari Men travelled here from the north, camping beside the soakage water at Nginkulwalunya for some time, before later continuing their travels further south. Since events associated with the Tingari cycle are of a secret nature no further detail was given.

Generally, the Tingari are a group of mythical characters of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating and shaping particular site – their travels and adventures enshrined in a number of song cycles.

Jack/Craig Anselmi

Yorta Yorta man Jack Anselmi was born in 1965 at Mooroopna, Victoria. A regular participating artist at Kaiela Arts, Jack enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and learning new skills. He is highly regarded for his striking animal carvings, sculptures and ceramics. Jack has received various commissions including from Melbourne University and Goulburn Valley Grammar School.

In 2016, Jack Anselmi worked with fellow artist Cynthia Hardie to create a large ceramic installation called ‘Midden’ for the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. ‘Midden’ was one of five shortlisted entries and won the 2016 Award for its innovative use of the medium of ceramic.

A recurring theme in his ceramics is the long-neck turtle which is the Yorta Yorta totem. Jack breathes life into previously inanimate objects whether in wood or ceramic, his animals have an energy about them that is captivating.

This painting is of four Yorta Yorta ladies talking by the stars.

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15. Jack/Craig Anselmi, Yorta Yorta Ladies Talking 2020, charcoal on canvas, 70 x 100 cm MM4934 | $2800

Jack/Craig Anselmi 16. Jack/Craig Anselmi, Red Gum Gumnuts 2020, Pen/Pencil drawing, 68 x 99 cm MM4948 | $1500

Yorta Yorta man Jack Anselmi was born in 1965 at Mooroopna, Victoria. A regular participating artist at Kaiela Arts, Jack enjoys sharing his knowledge with others and learning new skills. He is highly regarded for his striking animal carvings, sculptures and ceramics. Jack has received various commissions including from Melbourne University and Goulburn Valley Grammar School.

In 2016, Jack Anselmi worked with fellow artist Cynthia Hardie to create a large ceramic installation called ‘Midden’ for the Indigenous Ceramic Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. ‘Midden’ was one of five shortlisted entries and won the 2016 Award for its innovative use of the medium of ceramic.

A recurring theme in his ceramics is the long-neck turtle which is the Yorta Yorta totem. Jack breathes life into previously inanimate objects whether in wood or ceramic, his animals have an energy about them that is captivating.

This highly skilled, finely-drawn pen and pencil work depicts the red gumnuts that Jack Anselmi says: ‘need a very hot fire to germinate for future regrowth.’

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Jean Ngwarreye Long 17. Jean Ngwarreye Long, Red Gum Gumnuts 2020, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 61cm MM4999 | $1600

Born in 1963, Jean Ngwarreye Long has lived in the eastern desert community of Ampilatwatja all her life. She was an artist in the original Utopia batik movement in the 1980s and started painting on canvas in the 1990s.

She paints Ntang Ntang Seeds. 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.

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Jill KellyKemarre

Jill Kelly Kemarre was born in 1959, an Alyawarr woman; she also speaks Eastern Arrernte and English. Her father’s county is Irrwelty located on Alyawarr land north of the Utopia region of Central Australia. She currently lives with her husband and family at Irrerlirri Outstation in the Arltarlpilta region, 250kms north east of Alice Springs in the beautiful Harts Range.

Kelly has been painting for about 18 years and has also worked for Delmore Downs station and the art centre in Amperlatwaty (Ampilatwatja) north of the Utopia region as well as at the community art centre in Atitjere.

Her paintings represent elements associated with the stories from her traditional country. They include Arnwekety – Conkerberry, Lyaw Ntange – Seeds from the Munyeroo herb and Awely – women’s ceremony as well as the subject of this painting which depicts the spinifex plants in her country during the traditional burning period, conducted regularly to ensure renewal of indigenous flora.

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18. Jill Kelly Kemarre, Fire Story 2020 2020, acrylic on linen, 90 x 150cm MM4851 | $2,900

Judith Nungurrayi Martin 19. Judith Nungurrayi Martin Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush tail Possum Dreaming) – Mawurrji 2019, acrylic on linen, 183 x 107cm MM4574 | $4200

Judith Nungarrayi Martin is a Warlpiri speaker from Yuendumu, NT, born in 1976. Her grandfather was the late well-known artist Shorty Jangala Robertson. As a young child she would watch her family paint and listen to their stories.

Martin paints her father’s Jukurrpa (Dreamings) – Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming and the subject of this painting - Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush Tail Possum Dreaming). This Dreaming travels all over Warlpiri country. Janganpa are nocturnal animals that often nest in the hollows of white gum trees (wapunungka).

This story comes from a big hill called Mawurrji, west of Yuendumu and north of Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs).

A group of janganpa ancestors resided there. Every night they would go out in search of food.

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A Nampijinpa woman was living at Mawurrji with her two daughters. She gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla janganpa but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla angrily pursued the women, tracking them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place.

In recent years Martin’s work has developed in confidence and fluidity and been acclaimed in exhibitions throughout Australia. In this painting, the concentric circles depict the trees in which the janganpa live, and also the sites at Mawurrji.

Judith Nungurrayi Martin

Judith Nungarrayi Martin is a Warlpiri speaker from Yuendumu, NT, born in 1976.

Her grandfather was the late well-known artist Shorty Jangala Robertson.

This painting is Brush Tail Possum (Jangapa) Dreaming at a site called Mawurrji where a group of janganpa ancestors lived. A group of janganpa ancestors resided there. Every night they would go out in search of food.

There a Nampijinpa woman gave her two daughters. She gave her daughters in marriage to a Jupurrurla janganpa but later decided to run away with them. The Jupurrurla angrily pursued the women, tracking them to Mawurrji where he killed them with a stone axe. Their bodies are now rocks at this place.

In recent years Martin’s work has developed in confidence and fluidity and been acclaimed in exhibitions throughout Australia.

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19. Judith Nungurrayi Martin Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush tail Possum Dreaming) – Mawurrji 2019, acrylic on linen, 183 x 76cm MM4573 | $2,900

Katie Morgan Petyarre 21. Katie Morgan Petyarre, Kapi Wala / Spring Kapi Wala – rock hole 2019, stoneware, 14 x 38cm MM4379 | $980

Katie Petyarre Morgan (1959-2019) was an Alyawarre woman from Ingkwelaye (Kurrajong Bore), a traditional country area in the Utopia region of Central Australia.

Katie, along with her sister Janie, started her artistic career using non-traditional materials in the late seventies and early eighties with the batik program. From there, there was a natural progression from batik to applying paint to canvas.

Using a series of intricate dots of varying sizes in circular patterns Katie expressed the cultural importance of the fruits and flowers of her traditional dreaming story Akarley (Bush Orange). Once a staple food for the Aboriginal people of this area and found in abundance across the landscape, overgrazing by cattle and other livestock has reduced its numbers considerably.

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The plant is more related to the caper plant than the orange tree. The fruit grows on a shrub about 3.5m high with weeping foliage and produces large white flowers recognisable by their long prominent ridges. The fragrant small fruit hangs on long stalks and is green when unripe turning yellow or reddish in maturity. The fruit has a sweet flavour and is consumed raw.

In 2012 Katie won the Hobart Art Prize with a striking painting of Akarley and sadly, passed away in 2019.

Langkaliki Lewis 22. Langkaliki Lewis, Kapi Wala / Spring Kapi Wala – rock hole 2019, stoneware, 14 x 38cm MM4379 | $980

Langaliki is a Pitjantjatjara artist, the daughter of senior artist Atipalku Intjalki (a painter and craft artist) and Adrian Intjalki (punu - wood carver). Her sister is the highly skilled potter and jeweller Lynette Lewis. She went to school in Ernabella and then Adelaide. On returning from Adelaide she began working at the Ernabella TAFE and later the community office and store. She is an up and coming artist who is showing great promise in her sensitive depictions of her country on canvas, working with Ernabella Arts. Established in 1948, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous Art Centre, and is located in Pukatja Community, at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in the far north west of South Australia.

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Lankaliki’s ceramics were exhibited at Sabbia Gallery in Sydney in 2014 and her paintings at Short St Gallery Broome, Talapi Gallery, Alice Springs and Tunbridge Gallery, Subiaco and Everywhen Artspace, among others.

Her striking ‘Storm Cloud Story’ paintings encapsulate much of the drama and power of the land of the Pukatja artists.

Lily Kelly Napangardi 23. Lily Kelly Napangardi, Tali, Sand Hills 2019, acrylic on canvas, 104 x 63cm MM3975 | $1,600

Lily Kelly Napangardi was born at Haasts Bluff in 1948 and moved to the then newly established settlement of Papunya in the 1960s. During her time there she began painting, assisting her husband Norman Kelly, who was then an established artist. Kelly returned to Mt Liebig with her husband in the early 1980’s when she began painting in her own right.

A senior law woman of the Watiyawanu community, near Haasts Bluff, north-west of Alice Springs she is responsible for the Women’s Dreaming story associated with Kunajarrayi and is now teaching younger women traditional dancing and singing.

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Kelly won the Northern Territory Art Award for painting in 1986, and the General Painting Category at the 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2003. In 2006, she was named as one of Australia’s 50 most collectable artists by the Australian Art Collector magazine.

Her paintings depict her country’s sand hills, its winds and the desert environment after rain. They are a bird’s eye depiction showing the movement of the sand across the sand hills, at her country near Kintore. The story was passed from her grandfather.

Liyawaday Wirrpanda 24. Liyawaday Wirrpanda, Yalata 201, ochres on bark, 67 x 156cm MM3951 | $4,300

Born c.1973, Liyawaday is the granddaughter of the famous East Arnhem Land artists Narritjin Maymuru and the third wife of Djambawa Marawili. She has assisted her father, mother and husband on paintings.

From the 1990s she has produced work in her own right drawing on her own Dhudi Djapu clan designs which her father shared with her.

This work depicts early events during Ancestral (and present) time at Yalata close to the Dhudi-Djapu clan homeland of Dhuruputjpi - a coastal fringe area. The plain is tidal and during the wet seasons it is flooded by the rains with the tidal surge creating areas of brackish water. During the dry season the grass and black earth dry out.

Then the fires come, turning a swamp into a huge plain of cracked black earth.

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Fresh water springs dot this sun baked plain forming small islands of vegetation and as Rarrandada (the hot time) builds the thirsty wayin (birds) such as dhangultji (brolgas) and gurrumatji (magpie geese) come to these sacred springs in their thousands.

She relates the activities of Mäna the shark and the three sisters creator beings who created the sacred fresh water springfed waterholes by plunging their sacred digging sticks in the ground. Freshwater sprung from these wells as did a sacred goanna, a manifestation in some circles of the Djankawu themselves. Story has it that on surfacing the goanna saw the first sun rise. Also on the wet clays around the wells the goanna observed the footprints of Dhangultji the Brolga - the prints of the Brolga passing from spring to spring are an echo and a present day manifestatation of the Sisters who adopted the form of the brolga in their travels between springs - portrayed here by the roundels in the painting.

Lizzie Moss Pwerle 25. Lizzie Moss Pwerle, Dancing Lines 2020, acrylic on linen, 150 x 120cm MM4994 | $4800

Lizzie Moss Pwerle is a senior artist from Utopia, a community located 240 kilometres north east of Alice Springs. She was involved in the Batik project of the 1980s, when Western craft practices and traditional Indigenous imagery were combined for the first time and she was one of the early artists who began to use acrylic paint and canvas several years later.

Her main painting themes are those of her country – in which she recreates an aerial perspective of her country of Atnwengerrp – those of Bush Orange Dreamings and the subject of this painting the women’s ceremony called Ingkwelaye in which women paint themselves up and perform ceremonies to ensure the fertility of the land, its plants and animals.

Lizzie is a first cousin of the famed Pwerle sisters - Minnie, Emily and Galya and has a profound knowledge and respect for her country, and this is reflected in her paintings.

Her works have been exhibited in exhibitions in leading private galleries around Australia.

The lines in this painting are reminiscent of the patterns the women paint on their bodies and the lines in the sand they make which dancing the ceremony.

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LouiseMarlarvie 26. Louise Marlarvie, Nyabal Nyabal 2019, natural pigment on canvas, 80 x 100cm MM4743 | $3200

Louise Malarvie is a young emerging Jaru artist of the Kimberley, born in 1973 and rapidly developing a repertoire of images to reflect the cultural learning taught to her by the elders of her family. Committed to her cultural tradition and its expression Louise explores an individual interpretation of colour and composition to best translate her cultural learning. “I was born in Darwin and grew up at Mistake Creek and Bamboo Springs and then moved to Kununurra and lived at Lily Creek.

Afterwards I went to Emu Creek with my Mum [the artist Kitty Malarvie] I follow my mother to do painting. I watched my mother painting when I was small when she used to sell her paintings at the bakery before Waringarri Arts started. Everyone – my grandpa, my mum and dad all moved to Waringarri then.”

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Her traditional country which she records in her paintings, is the stunning and significant giant inland saltwater lake, Paraku (Lake Gregory).

“When it’s windy’, she says, “waves form and sparkle in the sunshine, we call it ‘nyabal nyabal’. This is what the light in the flicking water looks like...Sometimes the wind blows really fast. It makes me feel good when I think about it and remember my country.”

Lynette Lewis 27. Lynette Lewis, Womikata Walka Tali (Sand dune) 2020, acrylic on linen, 60 x 120cm MM4965 | $1900

Lynette Lewis was born in 1979 and is fast becoming one of Ernabella’s leading painters, weavers ceramicists and jewellers. Her mother Atipalku Injalki is a senior artist, her sister Langaliki is also a talented painter and her father Adrian Intjalki is an established punu (wood) carver.

She has participated in several ceramics and contemporary jewellery workshops.

In 2016 she was a finalist in the National Contemporary Jewellery Award at Griffith Regional Gallery and also worked alongside seven other Ernabella women potters to create a collaborative ceramics installation for the Indigenous Ceramics Art Award at Shepparton Art Museum. Her work was included in the touring exhibition ‘Clay Stories: Contemporary Indigenous ceramics from remote Australia’ curated by Sabbia Gallery, Sydney and touring Australia’s public galleries 2017-19.

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Her first solo exhibition Mara ninti: Clever hands- Liritja (necklaces) was presented at Craft ACT in November 2017.

This lyrical painting was inspired by the ripples created by wind in the sand at the large red sand dune named Womikata near Ernabella.

Womikata is a popular place for looking for maku (witchetty grubs) and also for teaching Milpatjunanyi (telling stories in the sand) to children.

Maria Josette Orsto 28. Maria Josette Orsto, Yapalajuni – Shells 2018, ochres on canvas, 62 x 40cm MM4128 | $1650

Tiwi artist Maria Josette Orsto was born in 1962 and is one of the most senior and well known of today’s Tiwi artists. The daughter of renowned Tiwi artists Declan Apuatimi and Jean Baptiste Apuatimi, Maria works across a range of media including ochre and acrylic on canvas and paper, printmaking, batik and wood sculpture.

She has exhibited widely since holding her first solo exhibition at AGOG Gallery, Canberra in 1990 and her work is represented in many Australian, and some international, public galleries.

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For the Tiwi, shells play and important part in both ritual and everyday life. Their meat is a source of food, and the surface of the shell is associated with spirituality and the songs sung during the Kulama - renewal ceremony.

Here, Maria has represented the large shells in Jilamara - the Tiwi word for design - deriving from the ochre patterns painted on the body for the Pukumani ceremony, in which participants’ bodies are covered in designs and sacred markings related to kin.

MarshallJangalaRobertson Marshall Jangala Robertson is a Warlpiri speaker, born in 1974 in Darwin and raised at Lajamanu in the NT. Both his parents were well known painters from Lajamanu. He moved to the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu on his marriage to fellow artist Justinna Napaljarri Sims. He is known for his effective use of black and white to relate the story of a Jangala watiya-warnu) ancestor who travelled south from a small hill called Ngurlupurranyangu to Yamunturrngu (Mount Liebig).

As he travelled he picked the seeds of the wattle - watiya-warnu (Acacia Tenuissima) and placed them in parrajas (food carriers), one of which he carried on his head. When people returned to their camp after collecting the seeds they would make large windbreaks for shelter and winnow the seed in the late afternoon. Immature watiya-warnu seed is ground into a paste and can be used to treat upset stomachs.

The associated watiya-warnu ceremony involves the preparation of a large ground painting. This Jukurrpa belongs to Nampijinpa/Nangala women and Jampijinpa/ Janagala men. In paintings of this Dreaming ‘U’ shapes are often depicting women collecting the watiya-warnu seeds. Oval shapes represent the parrajas where they carry the seeds and strait lines beside them frequently portray digging sticks.

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29. Marshall Jangala Robertson, Watiya-warnu Jukurrpa (Seed Dreaming) 2019, acrylic on linen, 122 x 61cm MM4787 | $1,500

MarshallJangalaRobertson Marshall Jangala Robertson is a Warlpiri speaker, born in 1974 in Darwin and raised at Lajamanu in the NT. Both his parents were well known painters from Lajamanu. He moved to the Warlpiri community of Yuendumu on his marriage to fellow artist Justinna Napaljarri Sims. He is known for his effective use of black and white to relate the story of a Jangala watiya-warnu) ancestor who travelled south from a small hill called Ngurlupurranyangu to Yamunturrngu (Mount Liebig).

As he travelled he picked the seeds of the wattle - watiya-warnu (Acacia Tenuissima) and placed them in parrajas (food carriers), one of which he carried on his head. When people returned to their camp after collecting the seeds they would make large windbreaks for shelter and winnow the seed in the late afternoon. Immature watiya-warnu seed is ground into a paste and can be used to treat upset stomachs.

The associated watiya-warnu ceremony involves the preparation of a large ground painting. This Jukurrpa belongs to Nampijinpa/Nangala women and Jampijinpa/ Janagala men. In paintings of this Dreaming ‘U’ shapes are often depicting women collecting the watiya-warnu seeds. Oval shapes represent the parrajas where they carry the seeds and strait lines beside them frequently portray digging sticks.

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30. Marshall Jangala Robertson, Watiya-warnu (Seed Dreaming) 2019, acrylic on linen, 183 x 91cm MM4986 | $3400

Mary Napangardi Butcher 31. Mary Napangardi Butcher, Fire Story 2020 2019, acrylic on linen, 91 x 61cm MM4986 | $990

Mary Napangardi Butcher was born at Mount Dennison, but has spent most of her life in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs. She has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists of Yuendumu since 1987. She was greatly influenced by her father Jack Japanangka Butcher (Dec) and his sister Daisy Napanangka Nelson (1930 – 2001), both artists who painted with Warlukurlangu in the early 80s and 90s. Mary would often paint with her sister Florrie Napangardi Jones and with Daisy on the same piece of artwork.

Mary paints her Pikilyi Jukurrpa stories-Pikilyi is a sacred water hole that never dries out. In creation times it was the home of two ancestral rainbow serpents who lived there as husband and wife.

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Molly Miller 32. Molly Miller, Mamungara 2019, acrylic on canvas, 90m x 122cm MM4680 | $3200

Molly (Nampitjin) Miller was born in the bush in 1948, “a bush baby�. She went to Warburton mission for her schooling and lived in a dormitory with all the other girls. Her family stayed in the camp at the mission. She married and her husband took her to Amata where she had her five children. Mrs Miller is a strong and founding member of Ninuku Arts at Kalka in the APY Lands and a respected elder within the community.

She comes from a strong artistic family, her brother and sisters are significant, well-known artists Dr Pantjiti Mary McClean, Jimmy Donegan (Telstra Award Winner 2010) and Elaine Lane from Blackstone.

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This subtle painting represents creation events at Walytjatjara (north of Kalka) in South Australia. A child is riding on his father’s shoulders and sees a figure in the distance - a mamu or spirit figure . The mamu is sleeping and the father puts the child down and tells him to watch the mamu who is lying in a wiltja (shelter) with a fire. The mamu has no teeth. It wakes up and smells the child, looks around and sees him, but the father returns just in time to rescue his son.

Mulkun Wirrpanda 33. Mulkun Wirrpanda, Bundjunju 2016, etching on paper (framed), 19/25, 57 x 81cm (image) MM4063 | $1500

Mulkun Wirrpanda is a senior female artist for the Dhudji-Djapu clan from Dhuruputjpi. As the eldest and most knowledgeable of her clan, she is acknowledged as a leader. Wirrpanda was an early practitioner of works without figurative imagery within the miny’tji (sacred clan design). Wirrpanda paints on bark, larrakitj (memorial poles) and yidaki (didjeridus) and is a talented carver, weaver and print maker.

From 2012 she began a phase where she explored lesser known plant species which she feared were being forgotten by younger generations. This coincided with artist John Wolseley’s interest and the two spent an extended period exploring the botany of Blue Mud Bay. This culminated in the major touring exhibition Midawarr Harvest with the National Museum of Australia. This work is part of that series, and a collaboration between Wirrpanda who made the woodcuts using slabs of ancient Huon pine sent to her by Wolseley who then printed them on fine rice paper in his Victorian studio.

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Mulkun Wirrpanda 34. Mulkun Wirrpanda, Dilminyin 2016, etching on paper (framed), 18/25, 65 x 97 cm (image) MM4065 | $1500

Mulkun Wirrpanda is a senior female artist for the Dhudji-Djapu clan from Dhuruputjpi. As the eldest and most knowledgeable of her clan, she is acknowledged as a leader. Wirrpanda was an early practitioner of works without figurative imagery within the miny’tji (sacred clan design). Wirrpanda paints on bark, larrakitj (memorial poles) and yidaki (didjeridus) and is a talented carver, weaver and print maker.

From 2012 she began a phase where she explored lesser known plant species which she feared were being forgotten by younger generations. This coincided with artist John Wolseley’s interest and the two spent an extended period exploring the botany of Blue Mud Bay. This culminated in the major touring exhibition Midawarr Harvest with the National Museum of Australia. This work is part of that series, and a collaboration between Wirrpanda who made the woodcuts using slabs of ancient Huon pine sent to her by Wolseley who then printed them on fine rice paper in his Victorian studio.

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Natalea HolmesPula 35. Natalea Holmes, Country 2019, acrylic on linen, 151 x 45cm MM4507 | $1,400

Natalea Holmes Pula is a young Anmatyarr painter, born in 1985 and is from the Utopia region of the Northern Territory. She is one of the region’s talented younger generation artists.

Utopia is approximately 300 kms north-east of Alice Springs, and is famous for its painting movements, and particularly its female painters, such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

The tradition of painting in the region is strong, based on body paint designs used in ceremony, and relate to the artists family genealogy and inherited lands. Holmes’s precise geometric abstract designs are based on the body designs that women paint on their bodies for ceremony. In recreating these in paint, she is paying homage to both her country and the women who care for it.

Her paintings often contain shimmer, the optical movement created by fine lines, which represents the spiritual power of the creation ancestors and is a highly prized quality within the field of Aboriginal art.

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Natalea HolmesPula

Natalea Holmes Pula is a young Anmatyarr painter, born in 1985 and is from the Utopia region of the Northern Territory. She is one of the region’s talented younger generation artists.

Utopia is approximately 300 kms north-east of Alice Springs, and is famous for its painting movements, and particularly its female painters, such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

The tradition of painting in the region is strong, based on body paint designs used in ceremony, and relate to the artists family genealogy and inherited lands. Holmes’s precise geometric abstract designs are based on the body designs that women paint on their bodies for ceremony. In recreating these in paint, she is paying homage to both her country and the women who care for it.

Her paintings often contain shimmer, the optical movement created by fine lines, which represents the spiritual power of the creation ancestors and is a highly prized quality within the field of Aboriginal art.

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36. Natalea Holmes Pula, Country 2017, acrylic on linen, 197 x 91cm MM2490 | $4800

Nathania Nangala Granites 37. Nathania Nangala Granites, Dilminyin 2019, acrylic on linen MM4799 91 x 61 cm

Nathania Nangala Granites was born in Alice Springs in 1995 into a family of artists. Her mother is Valda Napangardi Granites and her grandmother was the late Alma Nungarrayi Granites. Nathania has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2011.

She paints her father’s Jukurrpa, particularly Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and the subject of this painting – Warlukurlangu Jukurrpa (Fire Country Dreaming) – a creation story in which an old man lungkarda (Centralian blue- tongued lizard) of the Jampijinpa skin group, lived on a hill with his two Jangala sons.

The two sons returned from hunting one day with a kangaroo. Unbeknownst to them, the kangaroo was sacred to the lungkarda. In his anger he put his fire stick to the ground and sent a huge bush fire after them which lchased them for many kilometres.

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Although the boys beat out the flames, lungkarda’s special magic kept the fire alive and it re-appeared out of his blue-tongue lizard hole. Exhausted the boys were finally overcome by the flames.

The symbols in this painting represent the Warlukurlangu (a men’s cave), Kirrkirrmanu (where the sacred kangaroo was killed), Wayililinypa (where the fire killed the two Jangala sons) and Marnimarnu (a water soakage) where the two Jangalas camped.

Robert Nanala Tjapaltjarri 38. Robert Nanala Tjapaltjarri, Marawa 2019, acrylic on linen, 91 x 46cm MM4390 | $1400

A Pintupi man from the Kiwirrkura region, Nanala is an artist with Papunya Tula Artists, the famed original Aboriginal-owned art centre which initiated the contemporary Western Desert art movement. Also a translator and cultural activist, Nanala paints works of his country, the vast salt lake of Wilkinkarra, one of the ancestral sites for the Pintupi, and origin of much of their art.

His work often depicts the swamp site Marawa, situated slightly west of Wilkinkarra. There is a rockhole and soakage waters at this site.

During ancestral times a large group of Tingari men travelled to Marawa from the west, then passed beneath the earth’s surface and continued travelling underground. A huge ancestral snake sleeps in this swamp.

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Events associated with the Tingari Cycle are of a secret nature so no further detail may be given. The Tingari are a group of ancestral beings of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals and creating particular sites.

Selina Teece Pwerl

Selina Teece Pwerle was born in 1977 in her traditional country of Antarrengeny, in Alyawarr country north of the Utopia region in Central Australia. Teece grew up surrounded by artists and amidst the growing interest in art from the Utopia region. She developed her own artistic talents at a very young age and has already revealed great versatility as an artist. The theme for her paintings relate the stories from her father’s country Antarrengeny. Teece is greatly inspired by designs that she sees in her country and is constantly experimenting with design and colour.

In spring the desert literally becomes a blanket of wildflowers in a matter of weeks. Many of these are used for medicinal purposes and as well as food. As the leaves and petals dry, they fall and are blown around the ground by the wind.

Selina captures this fleeting moment in many of her ‘Gum Blossom’ and ‘Spinifex Leaves’ artworks, making them quite mesmerising. Interest in Selina’s work has been steadily increasing and she has been represented in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally since 2001.

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39. Selina Teece Pwerl, Spinifex Grass 2019, acrylic on linen, 150 x 90cm MM4761 |$3300

Selina Teece Pwerl 40. Selina Teece Pwerl, Arlatyeyt – Spinifex Grass 2018, acrylic on linen, 120 x 100cm MM2801 | $2900

Selina Teece Pwerle was born in 1977 in her traditional country of Antarrengeny, in Alyawarr coun-try north of the Utopia region in Central Australia. Teece grew up surrounded by artists and amidst the growing interest in art from the Utopia region. She developed her own artistic talents at a very young age and has already revealed great versatility as an artist. The theme for her paintings relate the stories from her father’s country Antarrengeny. Teece is greatly inspired by designs that she sees in her country and is constantly experimenting with design and colour.

In spring the desert literally becomes a blanket of wildflowers in a matter of weeks. Many of these are used for medicinal purposes and as well as food. As the leaves and petals dry, they fall and are blown around the ground by the wind.

Selina captures this fleeting moment in many of her ‘Gum Blossom’ and ‘Spinifex Leaves’ artworks, making them quite mesmerising. Interest in Selina’s work has been steadily increasing and she has been represented in numerous exhibitions both nationally and internationally since 2001.

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Stewart Hoosan 41. Stewart Hoosan, Ken Hammer on mule 2019, screenprint (framed), 13/25, 41 x 53cm (paper size) MM4445 | $1100

Stewart was born in 1951 at Doomadgee Mission, Gulf of Carpenteria. He is a Garrwa man on his mother’s side. He grew up on Calvert Hills Station with his grandfather Yarriyarri. At nine years of age he went to work in stock camps and spent time droving throughout Queensland and the Northern Territory. In his late teens he worked on a cattle station in Western Australia and moved back to Queensland four years later for further work on cattle stations. He settled in Borroloola in 1972 after marrying Yanyuwa/Garrwa artist Nancy McDinny. He worked on surrounding cattle stations Mallapunyah and Green Back before starting his own cattle business at Wandangula, Police Lagoon, in 1979. He currently lives at the nearby outstation, Sandridge, with Nancy.

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Hoosan began painting in the early 2000s after he stopped cattle work. He started painting landscapes from the Calvert Hills and Robinson regions, later developing an interest in painting social-history stories about droving and Aboriginal resistance fighters, who fought for their country during the period of colonisation in the Gulf.

He has exhibited in both Australian and overseas galleries and been selected for the prestigious National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award exhibition five times.

Thelma Dixon 42. Thelma Dixon, Borroloola Baskets 2019, screenprint, 32 x 46cm (framed) MM4720 | $890

Thelma Dixon was born in 1937 and is of the Garrawa language group. Her region is Robinson River, and she began painting in 2001. Dixon began her art practice painting small paintings about Robinson River and the surrounding areas where she used to go hunting, and about her station life where she used to look after the goats for the manager.

She is now making necklaces using bush seeds and shells, works in weaving with pandanus leaves, and works in wood, making coolamons and clap sticks, as well as screen printing.

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Tjulyata Kulyuru

The youngest artist daughter of one of Australia’s highly significant craft artists, Angkuna Kulyuru (born 1943) whose family lived a traditional bush life before settling at Ernabella.

Angkuna learnt batik methods in the 1970s, and became one of Ernabella Arts’ most prolific and well-known batik artists, with her work chosen for the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award 1987 and subsequently acquired by the Museum & Art Gallery of the NT, and acquired by the British Museum, NGV, NGA, NMA. Kulyuru has nine children, with five of her daughters practising artists - Unurupa (born 1962), Amanda (1964), Karen (1969), Daisybell (1972) and Tjulyata (1978). Tjulyata is continuing in her mother’s talented artistic footsteps and is an exciting emerging artist.

This subtle painting depicts the ‘Tjukula’ - or rock-holes, which are found with surprising frequency in Tjulyata’s home country of the Musgrave ranges. For Pitjantjatjara people living in the desert, knowledge of their water sources was critical to their survival. This resulted in an intimate understanding of the landscape which continues today. Deep familiarity with the topography of their country and the way rain would interact with the land ensured constant sources of water could be found.

Between visits to the rockholes, traditional custodians would use rocks and spinifex construction to guard these from spoilage by animals - particularly in more recent times, from feral and stock animals, cattle, camels, horses and donkeys.

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43. Tjulyata Kulyuru, Tjukula (Waterholes) 2020, acrylic on linen, 90 x 150cm MM4964 | $3400

Ursula Napangardi Hudson 44. Ursula Napangardi Hudson, Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) 2018, acrylic on linen, 107 x 61cm MM3839| $1200

Ursula Napangardi Hudson was born in 1962 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs.

She now lives at Nyirripi, a further 150 kms west-south west of Yuendumu, and has been painting with Walukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1993 who established a studio at Nyirripi.

When Hudson was a young girl she would watch her late aunt, Daisy Napanangka paint.

Hudson paints her father’s Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming), her mother’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming), which her aunty taught her In recent years she has become renowned for her subtle yet striking renditions of Pikilyi Jukurrpa against a red or black ground, overlayed with white paint leaving the under colour to be seen in patterns throughout the work.

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Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station.

Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the story of the waterhole and the two rainbow serpent ancestral heroes who lived there as husband and wife. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today.

Ursula Napangardi Hudson 45. Ursula Napangardi Hudson, Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) 2017, acrylic on linen, 61 x 61cm MM4983 | $790cm

Ursula Napangardi Hudson was born in 1962 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs.

She now lives at Nyirripi, a further 150 kms west-south west of Yuendumu, and has been painting with Walukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1993 who established a studio at Nyirripi.

When Hudson was a young girl she would watch her late aunt, Daisy Napanangka paint.

Hudson paints her father’s Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming), her mother’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming), which her aunty taught her In recent years she has become renowned for her subtle yet striking renditions of Pikilyi Jukurrpa against a red or black ground, overlayed with white paint leaving the under colour to be seen in patterns throughout the work.

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Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station.

Pikilyi is a large and important waterhole and natural spring near Mount Doreen station.

Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) tells of the story of the waterhole and the two rainbow serpent ancestral heroes who lived there as husband and wife. The spirits of these two rainbow serpents are still at Pikilyi today.

Valda Napangardi Granites 46. Valda Napangardi Granites, Mina Mina Jukurrpa 2020, acrylic on linen, 122 x 46cm MM4713 | $1200

Valda Napangardi Granites is the granddaughter of the late Paddy Japaljarri Sims (1916 – 2010) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (1932 – 2012), two founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists at Yuendumu, NT. Valda was born in 1974 and has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists since 1993, She paints the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories passed down to her by her mother and father and their parents before them.

The country associated with this Jukurrpa is Mina Mina, a place far to the west of Yuendumu, which is significant to Napangardi/ Napanangka women and Japangardi/ Japanangka men. The Jukurrpa story tells of the journey of a group of women of all ages who travelled to the east gathering food, collecting ngalyipi (snake vine) and performing ceremonies.

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The women began their journey at Mina Mina where karlangu (digging sticks) emerged from the ground. Taking these implements they travelled east creating Janyinki and other sites.

Their journey took them far to the east beyond the boundaries of Warlpiri country.

The ngalyipi vine grows up the trunks and limbs of the kurrkara (desert oak) trees. It is a sacred vine to Napangardi and Napanangka women and has many uses - as a cremonial wrap, as a strap to carry parrajas (wooden bowls) that are laden with bush tucker and as a tourniquet for headaches.

Violet Hammer 47. Violet Hammer, Good hunting ground for Nyingu (Echidna) 2019, screenprint (framed), 28 x 38cm (paper size) MM4714 | $590

Violet was born at Butcher Lagoon, Bing Bong and grew up at Managoora and Borroloola. Her region is Marra Camp. She went to school in 1954, then met her late husband Mr R Hammer and lived at Bauhinia Downs Station.

She started adult education in the early 80’s where she did screen printing and works on canvas. She was one of the founding members of Waralungku Arts, Borroloola.

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Walter Jangala Brown

Walter Jangala Brown is a mid generation artist from Yuendumu, NT. He comes from a long line of artists including the famous Pintupi artist Ronnie Tjampitjinpa.

This subtle painting depicts a portion of the Tingari cycle, a very important collection of Western Desert Dreaming narratives of the creation ancestors who travelled the lands.

They held initiations and other ceremonies, caused or encountered raging bushfires, hunted game, found and cooked bush-tucker, fought and killed one another, disposed of the dead or brought them back to life, interacted with totemic ancestors, made and used sacred objects, flew through the air, and died in hailstorms. They either created or became the physical features of the sites they visited and also laid down social custom and law.

Public paintings of the Tingari cycle typically only show the unrestricted portions of these stories represented by interlacing squares, sets of circles and lines.

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48. Walter Jangala Brown, Tingari Cycle 2019, acrylic on linen, 183 x 107cm MM4789 | $4,500

Yanyi Dunn 49. Yanyi Dunn, Ngayuku Ngura 2020, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76cm MM4839 | $1,400

Yanyi Dunn is an emerging artist with Ernabella Arts in the APY Lands. Established in 1948, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous Art Centre and is located at Pukatja community, at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in the far north west of South Australia. A craft room was established there in 1948, with the first craft products hand-loomed woven fabrics and hand-pulled and knotted floor rugs with a unique pattern that became known as ‘the Ernabella walka’ or anapalayaku walka (Ernabella’s design).

In recent years, long after commencing working as artists, senior women decided to depict their Tjukurpa (sacred stories of country and law) in a more iconographic manner.

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The centre’s inimitable reputation lies in the adaptability and innovation of the artists who have practised many different mediums since the craft room began - including screen printed fabrics and works on paper, silk and cotton batiks, weaving, printmaking, ceramics, contemporary jewellery and paintings on canvas.

Today its varied group of artists is a mix of senior, mid generation and young men and women. Yanyi Dunn is one of its most recent emerging artists, whose striking work depicts the variations in her country that includes many water sites, mountain ranges and wide plantfilled plains.

EVERYWHEN Artspace specialises in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art featuring paintings, barks, ochres, ceramics, sculptures and works on paper from 40 + Aboriginal art centres from around Australia.

Directors Susan McCulloch OAM and Emily McCulloch Childs.

EVERYWHEN Artspace 39 Cook Street, Flinders VIC 3929 T: +61 3 5989 0496 E: info@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au mccullochandmcculloch.com.au