4 Sisters, Minnie, Galya Emily and Molly painting Awelye

Awelye Atnwengerrp – the title of the painting refers to significant aspects of the life of the artists Minnie, Molly, Galya and Emily Pwerle . These are bush fruits, body paint, ceremonies, dancing lines and their homeland Atnwengerrp, a region of Utopia, some 250 km north-west of Alice Springs in Central Australia.

In their paintings, Minnie, Molly, Emily and Galya draw on the same dreamings. One of their important one’s is the bush tomato (Solanum chippendalei), whose name in Alyawarr is anemangkerr (pronounced similarly to numun-gurra). Although the seed of the bush tomato is bitter and poisonous, the flesh is an important food throughout Utopia and other parts of Central Australia. Its flavour is bland and can be compared to rock melon. The bush tomato can be eaten immediately, or threaded on to skewers and kept as a dried fruit for periods when bush tucker is scarce. The skewers are often obtained from desert rose shrubs which are usually found growing near the bush tomato, according to botanist Peter Latz in his book, Bushfires and Bushtucker.

Another dreaming painted by the women is the northern wild orange (Capparis umbonata) known in Alyawarr as akarley (pronounced a-kar-li). This fruit grows on a shrub about 3.5m high with weeping foliage and white flowers. The fruits hang on long stalks, turning yellow or reddish at maturity (Bushfires and Bushtucker).

The women also paint a commonly occurring plant which has provided a staple food for Aboriginal people in Utopia for thousands of years. This plant is Portulaca oleracea, or munyeroo.  The Alyawarr word for this plant is lyaw (pronounced similarly to eh-lau-a). This plant is less common now in Utopia, thanks to decades of cattle grazing, but is still available in sufficient quantities to be harvested and used. The tiny black seeds of this plant are stone-ground to make flour. This flour can be made into damper or cookies, or mixed with water to make a cordial for drinking.      

Portulaca oleracea is a vital food source for desert people because it is highly nutritious and still manages to set seed during times of low rainfall. It is hardy and grows quickly and is found especially abundantly after fire. 

The other important dreaming for these painters is the dancing tracks which are made in the sand during women’s ceremony, or awelye. A design based on these dancing tracks is painted on women’s bodies before a ceremony is performed, and this same design can be seen today in the women’s works on canvas.