Ada Bird Petyarre (also known as Petyarr) was one of a group of women, including most notably Emily Kame Kngwarreye, from the Utopia region in the Central Desert who were the first Indigenous women to gain prominence as artists. Utopia is a grouping of small communities in the Simpson Desert approximately 230 kilometres north-east of Alice Springs. In the late 1970s, women from Utopia were introduced to batik and other textile techniques as a means to establish a source of income. There is a strong tradition of ceremonial mark making in sand and on the body in this region and the women from Utopia transferred these designs onto batik, the new medium allowing a greater range of colour and a freedom and fluidity of line. Later, when these artists began to paint on canvas with acrylic paint, they created a distinctive style of painting which differed from other desert art and marked a new and important form of women’s cultural expression.

Petyarre was one of the founders of the Utopia Women’s Batik Group in 1978. After almost a decade working with batik, Petyarre made her first painting on canvas in 1988 during a CAAMA (Central Australian Aboriginal Media Association) Summer Project. Petyarre’s art is connected to awelye, a term denoting women’s ceremonial body painting and the broader concept of ‘women’s business’ as well as her ownership of specific Creation stories. Petyarre’s painting Awelye 1990 incorporates elements of the customary designs used for painting on breasts and the upper torso for sacred ceremonies, as well as representing the artist’s Country. Aweyle and other Creation stories including engcarma (bean), unyara (emu), annlara (pencil yam), kadjera (grass seeds), and elaitchurunga (small brown grass) are shared with other female artists from the Utopia region. The UNSW Art Collection also has a screenprint by Petyarre depicting the arnkerrthe (Mountain Devil Lizard), an important Creation story for which she was a custodian, and one of her favourite subjects.

Petyarre was born at Atnangkere at Utopia and was the elder of six sisters, including Kathleen and Gloria Petyarre who are also highly regarded artists. She held her first solo show at Utopia Art, Sydney in 1990 from which UNSW acquired Aweyle. Her work has been included in group exhibitions including Another Country, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney (1999) and is held in public and private institutions including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne and Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide.

RESOURCES

Utopia Women’s Batik Group, Northern Territory, 1970s-1980s