Janet Golder Kngwarreye / Women’s Dreaming (JG151)

Janet Golder Kngwarreye was born on 15 November 1973 at Mulga Bore, an outstation on the Utopia Homelands northeast of Alice Springs. She is an Anmatyerre artist whose paintings are deeply connected to the women’s stories, ceremonies and cultural knowledge of her Country.

The artistic line in Janet’s family runs deep. She is the daughter of artists Margaret Golder and Sammy Pitjara. Her grandmothers are esteemed Utopia artists Polly Ngale and Angelina Pwerle, her uncle is Greeny Purvis, and her sister Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is also an accomplished artist. Janet is married to Ronnie Bird, son of renowned artist Ada Bird Petyarre.

Janet grew up surrounded by the artists of Utopia and learned by watching members of her family paint and share the stories belonging to their Country. She was also growing up during the development of the Utopia batik movement, when women began transferring designs previously created in ceremony, body painting and sand drawing onto silk and, later, canvas. This environment helped shape Janet’s detailed approach to painting, particularly her fine line work, layering and intricate patterning.

Her subjects include Awelye, the women’s ceremonies and ceremonial body-paint designs; Bush Yam and Bush Yam Leaf stories; Bush Medicine; Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming; and broader interpretations of her Country. In her recent Women’s Dreaming and My Country paintings, Janet brings many of these elements together, combining women’s cultural practices with imagery of bush foods, medicinal plants, seeds, water sources and features of the Utopia landscape.

Janet is highly skilled in her use of colour and design. Her paintings are built from dense fields of fine dots, flowing lines, ceremonial markings and carefully interwoven symbols. Some works are created entirely in striking black and white, while others combine these graphic elements with rich areas of blue, turquoise, purple and other colours. The result is a richly layered contemporary expression of Country in which plants, water, ceremony, movement and ancestral knowledge become inseparable.

Janet’s work has been exhibited throughout Australia and internationally and has also featured in several prominent public projects.

Selected Projects and Recognition

2022
• Featured artist in Connection: Songlines from Australia’s First Peoples, an immersive exhibition at the National Museum of Australia, Canberra.

2019
• Commissioned by Coles to create My Country for its Alice Springs supermarket. The work depicts Janet’s relationship with her traditional homelands and includes imagery associated with bush foods, water sources and women’s ceremonies.

2014
• Invited to transform a black Smeg FAB28 refrigerator with her Bush Leaves design for the Australian Institute of Architects’ National Architecture Awards in Darwin.

Selected Exhibitions

2023
• Celebrating Country | Women Artists of Art Mob, Art Mob, Hobart

2022
• Connection, National Museum of Australia, Canberra
• Synergy 2022, First Nations Artists from around Australia, Everywhen Art, Shoreham VIC

2021
• Synergy: Art from the Heartlands of Aboriginal Australia, Everywhen Art, Shoreham VIC
• Top 20 2021, Art Mob, Hobart

2020
• Sounds of Summer, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• 60 by 60 – Small Paintings, Japingka Gallery, Perth
• Central Focus, Art Mob, Hobart
• Cup of Joy – New Works from Rising Stars, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2019
• Landscape Colours, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2018
• Painting on Country – Utopia Artists, Japingka Gallery, Perth

2004
• Aug-Sep – Mbantua Gallery USA exhibition; Knoxville, Tennessee

2003
• Mbantua Gallery USA exhibitions: New City Merchants, Knoxville, TN; Art and Soul Gallery, Nashville, TN; ‘The Cove Gallery’ Portland, OR; Mary’s Woods, Portland, OR, USA

2002
• Mbantua Gallery USA exhibitions: New City Merchants, Knoxville, TN; Art and Soul Gallery, Nashville, TN; ‘The Cove Gallery’ Portland, OR; Urban Wine Works, Portland, OR; Mary’s Woods, Portland, OR, USA

In her Women’s Dreaming paintings, Janet Golder Kngwarreye brings together the women’s stories, ceremonies and cultural knowledge connected to her Country. Rather than representing one single place or event, the painting unfolds as a richly layered view of Country, filled with plants, seeds, bush foods, water sources, ceremonial markings and pathways travelled by the women.

Flowing lines and intricately patterned areas refer to Awelye, the women’s ceremonies and ceremonial body-paint designs passed between generations. During Awelye, women come together to paint their bodies, sing, dance and honour the ancestral stories belonging to their Country. Through ceremony, cultural knowledge is taught and maintained, and the continuing health of the land, its plants, animals and people is acknowledged.

Throughout the composition Janet includes imagery associated with bush tucker and the women’s knowledge of gathering food and medicine. Among these are references to Atnwelarre, the pencil yam, its trailing plant, flowers and seeds. The yam grows beneath the ground and has long been an important food source in Central Australia. Janet is recognised as a custodian of Bush Yam knowledge within her community.

Concentric circles indicate waterholes, rock holes, soakages, ceremonial grounds and other significant places, while U-shaped forms represent women seated together. Leaf, flower, fruit and seed-like forms speak of the abundance of Country and the detailed knowledge required to locate food, water and medicine in the desert landscape. Janet has explained that Country may provide plentiful food and animals, but people must understand its Dreaming stories to know where these resources can be found.

The different areas flow into one another without a clear beginning or end, expressing Country as a living and interconnected whole. In some paintings Janet uses a dramatic black-and-white palette that emphasises the extraordinary complexity of her line work. In others, deep blues, turquoise and purple move through the design, evoking water, vegetation and the changing colours of the landscape.

Through these works, Janet celebrates the enduring relationship between women, ceremony and Country, and the knowledge that continues to be carried, practised and passed on.