JEANNIE PETYARRE

Jeannie Petyarre (c1950 - 2022), Arnkerrth Awelye (Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming, 1999.

Born around 1950 at the Boundary Bore Outstation on Utopia country, Petyarre is a member of the Anmatyerre language group. The youngest of seven sisters, including artist Evelyn Pultara, and niece to Emily Kam Kngwarray.

Petyarre began her art career in the 1980s with batik textiles, collaborating with the Utopia Women’s Batik Group under her aunt Emily’s guidance, before transitioning to acrylic on canvas. Petyarre was included in the seminal 1989 Utopia Women’s Paintings exhibition. Her work is now held in major institutions.

Petyarre inherited the Arnkerrth Dreaming,a central ancestral narrative in Anmatyerre lore, where the thorny mountain devil lizard carries ochre and shapes sacred places through its travels. In her version, Awelye refers to the women’s body-painting ceremony, and Petyarre connects the geometry of ceremony lines with the lizard’s textured skin and shifting camouflage.