Dulcie Pwerle paintings

Dulcie Pwerle

Dulcie Pwerle is an Anmatyerre woman from Alhalkere country. A direct descendant of one of Alhalkere's most important elders. Owner of the yam story. Sister. Friend. Full time artist. And provider of a big family.

Born on 6 June 1986 to the late Jeannie Petyarre, Dulcie grew up in a remote area of Central Australia called Utopia, on an outstation on her homelands. She attended Aniltji school there and grew up when women of Utopia were first doing paintings. Prominent artists from her country include Emily Kame Kngwarreye, her mother Jeannie Petyarre, Greeny Petyarre and Josie Kunoth Petyarre.

Yam Leaf paintings

Dulcie paints beautiful flowing yam leaves and flowers.

This is a style that has been adapted by many artists across many central desert regions, often called 'medicine leaves'. It was first painted by Utopia great Gloria Petyarre; Dulcie's family.

Dulcie's mother, the late Jeannie Petyarre, also painted this style and was the first to gain Gloria's blessing to do so. This is important.

Dulcie works her canvas in stages. She dips her brush into one or two different colours before applying it on the canvas in singular lines of brief strokes, usually starting from an outer edge heading toward the centre.

Her brush strokes are designed to imitate the heart-shaped leaves of the pencil yam called Atnwelarr that break through the ground and sweep across the desert floor; indicating where to find the yams.

Pencil yams are small and slender tubers growing up to the size of a pencil, found beneath the ground.

Dulcie's Homeland

A few hundred km into the bush north east of Alice Springs, on the western edge of the remote Utopia region, is a small Aboriginal Outstation called Boundary Bore. A couple of long dirt roads, and maybe several other bush tracks, will you get you there from the main Sandover Highway.

There are several houses, a school, a small cemetary and an old fractured windmill.

The people who live here are connected by their kinship and significance to the land. The land is Alhalkere, and this is where Dulcie Pwerle grew up.

Just outside the community is a soakage that used to provide water to the community.

Dulcie's mother, Jeannie, and aunt, Rosemary Petyarre, used to dig the sand out of the soakages first in order to find water below the surface.

Dulcie remembers going out on the homelands with her mother, hunting for small game, and collect the yams around the soakage before coming back to camp.

"[You can] find a lot of yams there".

[Pictured: Alhalkere homelands where pencil yams grow]

Q+A

Dulcie was born on 6 June 1986.

Dulcie most often paints the leaves and flowers of a pencil yam called Atnwelarr; a native trailing herb that covers large areas of the ground after significant rain and brings the bush to life with its bright yellow flowers.

Yes. Emily was Dulcie's great aunt. Her maternal grandfather shared the same mother and father as Emily.

Dulcie usually uses a size 6 round taklon paint brush and works with acrylic paints.

She dips the brush into one or two different colours before applying it onto the canvas in singular lines of brief strokes, usually from an edge towards the centre of the painting.

Sometimes, especially when the canvas is large, Dulcie will paint a small dot in the centre so she knows which point to align her brush strokes toward.