YINARUPA NANGALA

Yinarupa was born in about 1960 and is a Pintupi speaker. She began painting earlier in the 1980's being taught by her husband, Yala Yala Gibbs. Her works have been exhibited throughout Australia as well as overseas.

In 2009 she won the 26th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). Yinarupa's paintings depict designs associated with the rockhole sites of Mukala, east of Jupiter Well in Western Australia.

This painting depicts the path of women as they journey towards their sacred site. The circles and stripes are ancient body paint designs worn by women. The circles represent various coloured ochre rocks that are collected by the women on their journey for the purpose of painting body and ground designs.

BARBARA WEIR

Born at Bundy River Station in 1945 in the Utopia region of Central Australia. She has received international acclaim for her paintings with her highly compelling abstract works that masterly evoke a timeless illusion of depth and expression as is the story of her life. Her career as an artist was inspired by her adopted auntie Emily Kame Kngwarreye.

Her Grass Seeds Dreamings refer to the grass seed that is part of the bush tucker found in the region. Seed Is collecteted, crushed to a fine powder and then used to make bread. The Ammatyeree people call this seed merne ntange ulyawe, and its botanical name is Portulca Olurecea.

She has had exhibitions all over Australia and in many overseas countries.

TOMMY WATSON

Tommy Watson is a senior Pitjantjatjara elder and law man, (Karimara skin group), born around 1935 at Anamarapiti, a homeland 75 kilometres south of the present day community of Irrunytju (Wingellina) in Western Australia, one of the country’s most arid regions. As a young man Watson lived a semi-nomadic lifestyle with his family, walking thousands of kilometres from waterhole to waterhole. Their country was in the western reaches of the Gibson Desert which missionaries entered when he was a young man. Over this time he absorbed vital information about where drinking water and various sources of nutrition could be found. As an adult Watson became a stockman at Mount Ebenezer, then Yuendumu where he established an enviable reputation as a feared warrior as well as horseman, mustering horses, camels and donkey. He later returned to his homelands to live a largely traditional indigenous lifestyle, a life deeply involved with ceremony and his connection to land.

Watson paints stories from both his mother’s and grandfather’s country. Tommy’s mother died when he was very young and her dreaming stories in country south west of Warakurna, are a very important source of his painting content. He is very emotional about her dying young and was taught her Dreamings from her relatives.

‘My grandfather’s country, grandmother’s country. When they were alive, they would take me around the country, when I was a kid. That’s why we look after country, go out whenever we can. See if the rockholes are good.’

Tommy Watson is an internationally distinguished pioneer of contemporary indigenous abstraction in Australia with a genius that lies in the seamless artistic finesse with which he merges both his country and Dreaming. Miraculous imaginative expressions, his paintings resonate with the authority of his intimate and spiritual knowledge of place.

Tommy Watson is in a class of his own, holding the auction record for a living indigenous artist at $240,000. Collectors the world over acknowledge his genius with sales of Watson’s paintings over the past three years exceeding $5,000,000.

SARRITA KING

Sarrita is the daughter of the late highly acclaimed artist, William Jungala (1966-2007) who was part of the Gurindji tribe from the Northern Territory.

This painting depicts the electrical storms in the tropical climate of Darwin. As lightning cracks across the entire sky, they create lines not dissimilar to cracked earth. Sarrita discovers new patterns and colours each time she witnesses those natural light shows.

RAYMOND WALTERS JAPANANGKA

Born in Alice Springs, November 1975. His Country or Region is Yuelamu (Mt Allan) and Boundary Bore, Alhalkerre (Utopia).

He comes from a strong artistic background of well known artist, whose names include his grandfather Jack Cook Ngale, late grandmothers Emily Kngwarreye and Minnie Pwerle, Aunties Margaret Scobie, Gloria Petyerre, Barbara Weir, Kathleen Petyarre, Ada Bird Petyarre and his Uncle Lindsay Bird.

His modern contemporary abstract style is unique and exciting, using a wide range of colours and textures, creating art that is popular with galleries and the general public.

His artwork depicts the Dreaming stories of water from his Grandfather’s country ‘Ngarleyekwerlang’ and damper seed from his Grandmother’s country and his Dreaming Flying Ants.

These patterns and designs were decorated onto mens' bodies and shields during ceremony. The colours are the colours of the Earth.

JULIANNE NUNGARRAYI TURNER

Born April 1975 at Mount Allan Station, Northern Territory. Her tribe is Walpiri.

This painting is of the nesting chambers of small grass parrots which congregate in huge flocks at breeding time during early spring.

The concentric circles represent the hollows in the trees which line the waterways in and around Alparakinya to the north west of Alice Springs.

JUDY NAPANGARDI WATSON

Judy grew up living the traditional life of a Warlpir girl, travelling throughout her tribe's ancestral lands, in particular around the Mina Mina area between Gibson and Tanami Deserts.

She took up painting in 1986, initially being taught by her elder sister, noted artist Maggie Watson Napangardi. Typical of many Warlpiri artists, Judy uses a vibrant array of colours in her paintings and amazingly achieves a cohesiveness of expression that defies the broad colour spectrum used.

Judy Watson Napangardi is presently on the board of Warlurkurlangu Artists, the Warlpiri community art body based in Yuendumu where Judy lives with a number of her 10 children. Although diminutive in stature and now well into her 80s, Judy exudes gravitas, has the body strength of a much younger woman and the inner strength one often sees in senior law women. She remains an inspiration to those around her.

This painting is about the Dreaming which comes from Mina Mina country to the west of Yuendumu which is very sacred to the Napangardi and Napanangka women.

In the Dreaming, women danced at Mina Mina and digging sticks rose out of the ground. The women collected these and then travelled on. The sinuous lines of this work represent Ngalyipi (Snake Vine), a rope like creeper used in ceremonial wrap. The circles are jintiparnta, the edible truffle which the women gathered for sustenance on their long journey which eventually took them beyond Warlpiri country.

JEAN NORMAN NAMPAJINPA

Born c. 1956 at Mount Allan Station, Northern Territory. Her tribe is Walpiri/Anmatyerre.

The paining Bush Onions Dreaming (Yalka Dreaming) represents the grass of the Bush Onion, which as it spreads creates a flower pattern along dry river beds in Central Australia. When the grass of the plant has dried out, it is time for the women of the tribe to collect the onions which can be eaten raw or cooked in the hot sand near the camp fire. The black symbols represent the fruit which is ready for harvesting.

YILPI ATIRA MARKS

Born in July of 1969 in Ernabella, she was taught her Dreamtime Stories by her grandparents and parents. Her mother Tjulkiwa Atira-Atira and father Nyukana Baker (deceased) are talented artists whose artworks are held by State Gallery of South Australia.

Yilpi is married to highly talented artist Damien Marks Tjangala. They often encourage and paint their designs in collaboration with each other. The pair are rising stars whose artworks are sought after by collectors worldwide.

This contemporary depiction of the sand hills near Ernabella is a representation of the sand dune country where the women of her community go on hunting expiditions in search of burrowing animals.

ANNA PETYARRE

Anna is renowned for her fine painting technique and for the care and pride she takes in her work, producing intricate and sensitive paintings that relate to the traditional culture of her Anmatyerre heritage.

In this painting, Anna Petyarra illustrates multi-layered elements associated with her country, Atneltyeye or Boundary Bore on the Utopia Homelands. In the tradition of ancient sand drawings, Anna has painted her country from an aerial perspective.

ABIE LOY KEMARRE

Born into a family of celebrated indigenous Australian artists, Abie Loy Kemarre is making her mark on the international art scene with her enthralling renditions of totemic ancestral stories from her Aboriginal heritage. Abie Loy Kemarre is arguably one of Australia's most exciting younger talents in the indigenous women's art movement. She uses her painting to portray the strength and power she feels for the land where she and her family live. Her work has been exhibited in Australia, Indonesia, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany and the US.

In this painting Abie refers to her ancestral country of the Bush Hen Dreaming, near Utopia in Central Australia. Illustrated in the painting is Awelye (body paint design) which is the movement of aboriginal women dancing during traditional sacred ceremonies. These ceremonies are performed with song and dance cycles enacting stories of the Bush Hen Dreaming.