Belinda Golder Kngwarreye
Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is an Anmatyerre artist from the Utopia Homelands of Central Australia. Born in 1986, her Country is Mulga Bore—an area renowned for its deep cultural knowledge and strong painting traditions. Belinda comes from a distinguished artistic lineage: her grandmother is leading Utopia artist Polly Ngale, her mother Bessie Purvis Petyarre, and sister Janet Golder are accomplished artists, and her great-aunts Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale are also respected painters.
Belinda inherits the Bush Plum Dreaming through her grandmother, Polly Ngale. Her work reflects both cultural authority and personal confidence, translating ancestral stories into contemporary visual language. Through refined dot work and layered colour, Belinda captures the seasonal cycles and vitality of her Country, contributing to the continuing legacy of Utopia art.
The composition is built through dense layers of dots, carefully piled to create depth, movement, and rhythm across the canvas. Belinda’s rich palette reflects the bush plum plant as it ripens, shifting through vibrant hues that mirror seasonal change. Her confident mark-making conveys an intimate understanding of landscape, memory, and ancestral pathways.
The Bush Plum (also known as Desert Yam) is a highly significant plant in Central Desert culture. Growing underground beneath a vining shrub, it thrives on spinifex sand plains and produces large flowers after summer rains. The tuber is a vital traditional food source—eaten raw or cooked—and remains an important staple in desert communities. Beyond its nourishing properties, the bush plum is valued for its medicinal uses, traditionally used to treat cuts, wounds, bites, and rashes, and as a natural insect repellent.
Through this work, Belinda honours women’s cultural knowledge, the sustaining role of bush foods, and the enduring connection between people, ceremony, and Country—offering collectors an artwork rich in story, authenticity, and cultural depth.
