Antarrengeny: Edie and Her Daughters
- Artists of Ampilatwatja
- 29 Jan—12 Feb 2025
Edie Kemarre Holmes was born near the mining town of Hatches Creek, Northern Territory, where she was raised with her four brothers and her sister. She enjoys life at Ampilatwatja with her children and grandchildren and paints at the art centre alongside her daughters Joyrene Ngwarraye Holmes and Alana Ngwarraye Holmes, who are also both talented and well respected artists. Art, country and culture are all essential to their way of life in Ampilatwatja.
“My fathers’ country is Antarrengeny; my mothers’ country is Akwerantye. We paint because we enjoy it.” Edie paints her country, “Apmer Mwerrangker”, meaning beautiful country.
“If I’m not painting, I like to go hunting for goanna and bush potato. I hope in the future, I can just keep going around here.”
Edie has continued to develop her own style, and she is easily recognised by her ghost gum trees and fine dot work. She was also one of the original artists in the Utopian Batik movement in the 1980’s.
Edie, Alana and Joyrene depict Antarrengeny, “when there has been no rain and the land shimmers like jewels. It is the open flat country, after a bushfire, when only the young grasses and the trees are growing and where there is good hunting.” as Edie so beautifully describes it.
The Artists of Ampilatwatja community was established in 1999 near Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.
Most of the artists paint Arreth, which translates to ‘strong bush medicine’, demonstrating a deep connection to country. A veritable source of life, the land has provided and sustained Alyawarr people for generations, as every plant and animal has a vital role to play within the ecological system.
The paintings pay homage to the significance and use of traditional bush medicine, allowing an insight into their community. Yet underneath the iridescent surfaces, there is an underlying sense that there is more to these landscapes than meets the eye. In keeping with the religious laws, the artists reveal only a small amount of knowledge to the uninitiated.
The esoteric information that is held sacred to these artists and their people is concealed from the public and layered underneath the common visual narrative, masked by the delicate layered dots of the painting. The many levels of interpretation permit artists to present their art to an often culturally untutored public without compromising its religious nature. Artists talk of two broad levels of interpretation, the “inside” stories which are restricted to those of the appropriate ritual standing, and the “outside” stories which are open to all.
