Anna Price Petyarre

Anna Price Petyarre is an eastern Anmatyerre woman, born at Utopia in 1960. Anna‘s home is Atneltyeye, Boundary Bore, on the Utopia Homelands, approximately 220 km from Alice Springs. She lives there with her family. She is a grandmother with five grandchildren.

Anna, whose mother was the late artist Glory Ngale, has painted since her early childhood. She is related to Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kudditji Kngwarreye through her grandfather, who was a brother of Emily and Kuddltji‘s father.

Her subjects include Bush Yam and Yam Seed Dreamings, which are associated Dreamings from her grandfather’s and father’s country at Atneltyeye, or Boundary Bore. As a traditional Aboriginal women involved in sacred ceremonies, Anna also paints Awelye – ceremonial body paint designs – related to these women‘s rituals.

Amongst these is the story of women painting up for ceremony inside a cave, singing of how to attract a man, and of the bush foods preferred by interested suitors. The women also learn the laws which stipulate that they must only encourage the interests of men of a certain clan relationship to themselves.

Anna‘s more recent work has focused on images of her ancestral country, the fi nely delineated structures showing the terrain of the sandhill and bush country, often with markings that reveal waterholes and ceremonial sites. She is renowned for her line painting technique and for the care and pride she takes in her work, producing intricate and sensitive paintings that relate to the traditional culture of her Anmatyerre heritage.