Janet Goldner Kngwarreye
About Janet Janet Golder Kngwarreye is the daughter of Margaret Golder and Sammy Pitjara. She is an Anmatyerre artist hailing from Mulga Bore within the Utopia Homelands. Ms. Kngwarreye resides at Boundary Bore with her husband, Ronnie Bird, and their three children. She has been actively involved in the Batik movement at Utopia in the Northern Territory and predominantly focuses on painting narratives related to her ancestral land in this locality.
The artistic lineage within her family is profound. Her grandmothers, the highly regarded Utopia artists Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle, alongside her uncle, Greeny Purvis, contribute to this heritage. Additionally, her sister, Belinda Golder Kngwarreye, is recognised as an accomplished artist in her own right.
Janet embarked on her painting journey in 1987, acquiring her artistic skills from family members and embracing themes that resonate within the female artists of her family group. These themes encompass the Awelye Women’s Ceremonial Body Paint, the Bush Yam Leaf designs, Bush Medicine, and Mountain Devil Dreaming. In recent years, she has further developed narratives centred on women’s cultural practices on Country, intertwining imagery of bush foods with elements of the Utopia landscape.
Janet Golder Kngwarreye possesses considerable expertise in color application. Her artworks frequently merge black and white design elements with vibrant colours, or alternatively, display a full spectrum of color, illustrating features of her homeland and the bush medicine that flourishes there. She has showcased her work in galleries across Australia and on an international scale.About the ArtworkJanet has created a Women’s Dreaming narrative, intricately weaving her cultural heritage with the bush tucker and waterholes that are crucial for the women during their ceremonial excursions, which may last up to one week. The women perform significant ceremonies at these locations, including the Desert Yam (or Bush Plum) story from her ancestral lands.
The yam grows subterraneanly, with its viny shrub extending above ground to a height of approximately one meter. It is typically located on Spinifex sand plains and yields large blossoms following summer rainfall. The yam is a tuber, or an enlarged root, of the shrub and possesses a flavour reminiscent of the common sweet potato. It may be consumed either raw or cooked, and it remains a fundamental food source for the desert Aboriginal peoples, who can harvest it year-round. Additionally, it is renowned for its medicinal qualities. This plant's medicinal properties are utilised to heal cuts, wounds, insect bites, rashes, and also serve as an insect repellent.
During ceremonies, the women pay tribute to the spirit of this unique plant, expressing the hope that it will regenerate.
About the Painting
Janet's paintings are borne from traditional knowledge and her confident approach to painting is evident in the way she assembles the images of the bush seeds, piling dots over each other to create a dense surface using a rich palette of colour. Gracie’s subject matter is drawn from acute observation and memory. There is intimate knowledge of country, blended with personal history and ancestral journey.
The Bush Plum Dreaming Story is a big story that spreads right across the western and central deserts from Lajamanu and Warlpiri country to the Utopia homelands.
The Bush Plum Dreaming or Creation Story from the Utopia region goes like this: In the Dreamtime winds blew from all directions carrying the bush plum seed to the artists’ ancestral lands. The first bush plum of the Dreamings grew and bore fruit and dropped more seeds. Many winds blew the seeds all over the Dreaming lands.
To ensure the continued fruiting of this plant each season, the Aboriginal people pay homage to the spirit of the bush plum by painting about it and recreating it in their ceremonies through song and dance. The patterns in the paintings celebrating the Bush Plum work on many levels: they represent the fruit of the plant, its leaves, and flowers and also the body paint designs that are associated with it during ceremony.
AWARDS AND RECOGNITION
2020, one of Janet's works was chosen to decorate the Coles supermarket in Alice Springs
