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About the Artists
Our vibrant and dynamic artists are from the Utopia region; a large remote area of Central Australia which, until recently, had no government funded art centre. As a result of their pioneering efforts, they have one of the strongest and richest art histories.
ABOUT Jeannie Mills Pwerle
Jeannie Mills Pwerle is a Utopia artist and elder who is known for her beautiful depictions of the Desert Yam.
She has been painting since the 1990's and spent a lot of time doing so with the late Ahalpere elder, Lena Pwerle. She also remembers being around when Emily Kame Kngwarreye, her grandfather's sister, was painting three decades ago.
Jeannie's graceful handling of a paintbrush makes her experience evident.
She delicately dips a paint brush into three or four different coloured paint pots before gliding it across the canvas, creating a series of disjointed stripes in blended colours. She then frames each line with small white dots.
These stripes, she says, are anaty; the Desert Yam.
Born in 1965 to a ngangker (a bush doctor or healer), Jeannie is now a ngangker herself.
There used to be a little camp next to the Utopia health clinic, a few hours north of Alice Springs, called Jeannie's camp. A stack of abandoned cars blocked it from view of the road but it was there. It made sense for Jeannie to live close to the clinic because she is a ngangker.
She doesn't live their now but it doesn't stop people travelling any distance to see her. At any hour. And she always has a supply of bush medicine made and ready.
[Pictured: Jeannie Mills with ilpengk bush medicine she has made]
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Dolly Mills Petyarre
mother
