Dreamtime Sisters
Artist: Colleen Wallace Nungarrayi
Region: Eastern Desert
Medium/Type: Painting
Size: 80 x 100 cm
Catalogue Number: 14182CW
Price: Enquire
This glorious, vibrant and colourful artwork by Colleen is about ‘Dreamtime Sisters’ – spirits who care for the artist’s grandfather’s country near Gemtree, to the north west of Alice Springs. This is Eastern Arrente land. The depicted ancestral spirits watch over the land and celebrate through ‘Awelye’ (women’s ceremony that includes song, dance and body painting).
Different to many of Colleen’s other Dreamtime Sisters works, in this artwork she has used white to outline the spirits with distinct red dots and line work that rises from the shapes at the bottom of the painting. Together with the circular shape at the top, these represent women’s sacred sites. Ceremonial poles are placed in the middle of the traditional ground designs during ceremonies and represents the land. The dots that meander up through the female spirit figures represent the ancestral journeys.
Colleen Wallace Nungarrayi
Region: Eastern Desert
My country is called Arnumarra, that is my grandfather’s country… Colleen is well known for her Dreamtime Sisters, dancing Awelye (women's ceremony), protecting country…