"Dreaming," also known as "Dreamtime," is a word commonly used to describe the complex spiritual and cultural belief systems of Aboriginal people. But the concept of the Dreaming is far deeper than any one English word can express.

The Dreaming refers to the time of creation, when ancestral beings shaped the land, waterways, animals, seasons and people. These ancestral spirits travelled across the land, performing ceremonies and leaving behind sacred stories, law, and knowledge. The marks they left in the form of rock formations, waterholes and pathways remain deeply significant today.

But the Dreaming is not just a story of the past. It is timeless. It exists in the past, present, and future all at once. It continues to guide every part of life today, from relationships and responsibilities, to how people care for the land, navigate kinship, and make art. Every Dreaming is specific to a place and to the people who belong to that Country. These stories connect Aboriginal people to their ancestors, to the land, and to a set of laws and duties that must be respected and passed down.

At Pwerle Gallery, the artworks we represent carry these Dreamings. Each painting is a living document - a map of memory, song, and Country. The artists we work with are not simply creating paintings for decoration; they are continuing an unbroken tradition of storytelling that dates back over 60,000 years.

While contemporary Aboriginal artists often use acrylic paint on canvas, the symbols and stories within these works are ancient. The same sacred designs once appeared in body painting for ceremony, sand drawings or carved on sacred tools and objects. These patterns and lines, often seen from an aerial perspective, reflect a deep, lived knowledge of Country.

For example:
- Concentric circles can represent waterholes, campsites or sacred ceremonial sites.
- U-shapes may show where people are seated on the ground.
- Tracks and lines might depict ancestral journeys, songlines, or trade routes.
- Animal tracks, such as those of emus or kangaroos, reflect the path of ancestral beings.
- Dots and flowing lines can represent fire trails, desert grasses, wind or even the rhythm of a song.

These symbols may seem simple to the untrained eye, but many contain layers of meaning known only to those with the cultural authority to understand them. Some knowledge is public; much is sacred, gender-specific, or kept within certain family lines. What is shared on canvas is only ever a part of a much deeper system of knowledge.

The Dreaming teaches people how to live: how to hunt, find bush foods, care for Country, resolve conflict, understand weather, or raise children. It guides daily life and ceremonial obligations. It teaches values, connection, balance, and the understanding that land, culture, language, and spirit are one and the same.

The artists of the Atnwengerrp community whose work we proudly showcase continue this storytelling through their painting. From the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye to contemporary artists such as Molly Pwerle, Barbara Weir and Gloria Petyarre, these works are expressions of lived culture. We are proud to exclusively represent artists from this region, where art is not a career it is a responsibility and a spiritual practice.

The vibrant colours often seen in Utopian artworks from deep reds and ochres to emerald greens and sky blues are not only visual choices. Each colour reflects something of the land and its seasonal cycles: the burst of the bush plum, the patterns of burnt earth, the shape of dry riverbeds or the blooming of yam flowers after rain.

Over the past two decades, Aboriginal art has experienced a global renaissance. No longer seen merely as ethnographic or decorative, these paintings are now recognised as fine art and more importantly, as cultural declarations. They speak of resilience, ancestral power, and cultural authority. Through their work, these artists challenge misconceptions, correct histories and celebrate identity.

At Pwerle Gallery, our mission is to honour these stories, protect their integrity, and amplify the voices of the artists behind them. Each painting connects the viewer to something much older and more sacred than the canvas itself - a story passed down through bloodlines, ceremony and deep cultural practice.

The bush plum fruits in the summer after a fall of rain and is an important food source, even though not all of the plum is edible. The plums can be collected when ripe and eaten immediately or they can be dried and eaten later. When young, the fruit is green in appearance, but as it matures, it becomes a purple-black colour, similar in appearance to an olive.

The plant can grow up to 3 metres high and has blue-green leaves and a creamy white flower, making it a very attractive plant. To ensure the fruiting of this plant each season, the artist pays homage to the spirit of the bush plum by painting about it and celebrating it in ceremony.

The bush berry vine grows in abundance throughout Utopia. It grows at the base of a tree and weaves its way to a high branch, forming a cluster which will then produce many individual vines. Although there are many of these vines, only a small number of them will fruit, producing berries in large clusters.

The berry itself is about half the size of an old one-cent piece and comes in a wide variety of bright colours, colours often depicted in Bush Berry paintings. The fruit is sweet to taste and can be eaten as a main meal. As it is only found for six weeks of the year, usually in the summer months after rain, women often dry the berries to be eaten during the leaner months. In "Bush Berry Dreaming," the artist pays homage to the spirit of the bush berry vine so that it regenerates year after year to provide food for the people.

The bush tomato is very different to the tomato most people know. It is a plant that can grow up to one and a half metres tall, with grey-green leaves and purple flowers. When young, the bush tomato is green-purple in colour, but as it ripens it turns pale yellow as the mature fruit opens. The centre is filled with black seeds surrounded by an outer "skin," which is removed so only the outer rind is eaten. It is sweet to taste and a good source of vitamin C.

The bush tomato is plentiful most times of the year, except in the summer months. The fruit can be threaded onto sticks and dried for extended storage, then eaten when food is scarce. This popular bush tucker is easily found and enjoyed by the whole community. By painting the bush tomato, the artist honours the spirit of the plant and secures future food supplies for the community.

The bush potato, along with the yam plant, was traditionally the most important food source for the Utopia community. It is not only a food source but an important water source as well, being sweet in taste and very juicy with a water content of 50%. This high water content enables people to survive without drinking water for long periods, if large quantities of bush potato are consumed.

The plant grows on spinifex sand plains at Utopia and can reach one metre in height, with branches that trail along the ground. It has green leaves with pink and red flowers. Like the yam plant, the bush potato is abundant in summer months after rainfall.

The root system can extend up to one metre underground and three metres in width. The roots, known as "tubers," can grow as large as a person's head, though these larger ones are less desirable, being woody and hard. The smaller tubers are eagerly sought, as they are sweeter and juicier, but are found deep underground, requiring a great deal of digging by the women.

The ability to find the yam and bush potato is a skill passed down from mother to daughter, and one that can never be underestimated, families rely on the collection of these plants when meat is hard to come by. Aboriginal women will often walk long distances looking for signs of the yam or potato, excavating large areas to unearth this food.

As the bush potato is such an important source of food and water, ceremonies are often held to give thanks to the spirit that supplies it, and to ensure the plant's continual regrowth.

The bush banana is a woody, winding vine with cream flowers and green leaves that grows on other trees and shrubs throughout Utopia. It is a commonly found food that fruits after a fall of rain. The mature fruit releases seeds which are carried away by the wind to regenerate elsewhere. The fruit is either cooked and eaten whole, or the seeds are discarded and only the thick outer rind is eaten.

New, young leaves can be collected and eaten, with older leaves steamed before eating. The only parts of the bush banana not consumed are the stems and fine roots, making it an important food source for the people. Bush banana, bush melon, bush plum, bush orange, bush raisin and bush tomato are together depicted as Bush Tucker Dreaming.

In Aboriginal culture, ceremonies are focal points in the life of the community. They are held for different purposes but are integral to the happiness and wellbeing of the people. People dance and celebrate to acknowledge the fertility of the land, the health of the people, and the initiation of young men, or to mourn the passing of a loved one. For ceremony, women smear their bodies with animal fat and trace ceremonial designs on the top half of their body using powders ground from charcoal and yellow and red ochre. The most senior women of the clan group lead the dancing and singing.

Women's ceremony is held separately from men's ceremony, though each is viewed as of equal importance by the community. Through their ceremonies, people demonstrate their respect and love for the land. Body paint designs vary from ceremony to ceremony, depending on the subject and the time of year the ceremony is held and the specific symbols painted may vary from person to person, depending on the seniority of each member of the clan group.

Represents the moment when women paint each other's breasts and upper bodies with ochre markings before dancing in ceremony. These body designs, painted on chest and shoulders, relate to each woman's own Dreaming. The ochre pigment is ground into powder, mixed with charcoal and ash, and applied with a flat padded stick or with fingers, in raw linear and curving patterns.

The circles in these designs represent the sites and movements where ceremonies take place. The lines depict the tracks her people made as they trekked across Country in search of food and dry riverbeds. The large semi-circular shapes represent sand-hills and valleys. The dark colour represents the path of a fire that has swept across the land. The dot work on the top layer represents the unseen sacred sites and tracks recreated during ceremony, and the journeys made to sacred camp sites.

In Aboriginal culture, the land is central to each individual's identity, and from a young age, the history of the land is taught. The land provides nourishment for Aboriginal communities, and it is the duty of the people to nurture their Country. In the dry summer, when there is very little rainfall, conditions are ideal for fire.

Fire is important to the people, as it burns the undergrowth and allows the regeneration of various plants including vital bush tucker such as yam, potato, tomato, banana and plum. The journey of the fire is often depicted in Aboriginal paintings through wide dark areas, with the flames shown as circular designs surrounded by feather-like shapes.

Surrounding these areas there is often varied dot-work representing the bush tucker that will begin to seed and take root, regenerating to feed the people. By painting "Fire Dreaming," the artist pays homage to the spirit of fire to guard the people and ensure new regrowth.

In Aboriginal culture, ceremonies play an important part in community life and are vital to the health and wellbeing of the people. Men's ceremonies and women's ceremonies are kept separate, but are of equal importance in the eyes of the community.

Due to the secret nature of "Men's Business," which is reserved for initiated men only, very little is shared publicly about these ceremonies or the significance of the body paint used. What can be shared is that the body paint drawn on young Aboriginal males being initiated relates to stories important to the adult initiated men of the community, stories only shared with boys once they come of age.

The initiation ceremony allows a boy to become involved in sacred ceremonies, to see ceremonial sites, and to gain knowledge of the laws and customs he is expected to uphold.

This Dreaming is told specifically through the paintings of Barbara Weir.

Barbara Weir was born in the region of Utopia, at a place formerly known as Bundy River Station. Barbara's mother, the celebrated artist Minnie Pwerle, came from a region of Utopia called Atnwengerrp, and it is this Country that is depicted in Barbara's paintings. The Dreaming behind Barbara's work comes from ceremonies held by the women of Atnwengerrp. In the underpainting, Barbara often depicts abandoned campsites made as people trekked across Country in search of food, or the coolamons used by women to collect fruit and berries.

She may also show the form of a woman's body adorned with paint for women's ceremony. Small or large semi-circular shapes depict the hills and valleys of the land, and winding trails show the rivers or streams dotted across the countryside. There may also be the outline of a person, or unusual shapes conveying the spirits that dwell in the plants and animals of Utopia.

Overlaying these motifs is a complex array of dot work depicting the bush tucker found across the Utopia region, including bush yam, potato, berry, plum, banana, and the all-important grass seed vital to the people's survival, traditionally collected, cleaned and ground into a paste to form a type of "bush damper." There may also be areas of dark colour representing the path of a fire that has swept across the land.

This style of painting is subtle in its method and appearance, and one needs to look closely for the motifs Barbara has incorporated into each piece. Each is titled "My Mother's Country," but every one carries slight differences, different palettes suggesting the land at different seasons of the year.

The region of Utopia has a harsh climate, with summer temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius and freezing winter nights, with frosts from late May to early September. During drought, vegetation is sparse, and only the spinifex and mulga shrubs remain, appearing withered and dying.

After a fall of rain, the landscape changes completely. The dried-out spinifex resembles a field of wheat, while the mulga shrub produces dense green foliage and masses of bright yellow flowers. Growing among these plants is a profusion of wildflowers that completely transforms the land. In "Wildflower Dreaming," the artist pays homage to the spirit of the flowers, the transformation of the land meaning new growth, regeneration, and the bush tucker necessary for survival.

In Aboriginal culture, ceremonies are focal points in the life of the community. They are held for different purposes, but are integral to the happiness and well being of the people. The people dance and celebrate to acknowledge the fertility of the land, the health of the people, and the initiation of young men or to mourn the passing of a loved one. For ceremony the women smear their bodies with animal fat and then trace certain ceremonial designs on the top half of their body using a variety of powders, ground from charcoal and yellow and red ochre. The most senior women of the clan group then lead the dancing and singing.

The women’s ceremony is celebrated separately from the men’s ceremony, though each is viewed as of equal importance by the community. Through their ceremonies the people are demonstrating their respect and love for the land. The body paint designs vary from ceremony to ceremony and depend on the subject and the time of year the ceremony is held. Different symbols are painted on the body and may vary from person to person, depending on the seniority of each member.

This Dreaming is told specifically through the paintings of Jade Akamarre.

In 2021, Barbara Weir entrusted her granddaughter Jade Akamarre with this Dreaming - Atnwengerrp, the Country of her great-grandmother Minnie Pwerle. Jade paints it as she sees it: from above. Using loosely executed dots in linear patterns, her artworks evoke an aerial perspective of her Country, the tracklines stretching across the canvas like veins binding people, story and land together.

These are not decorative lines. They are a talking map; recording the journeys her ancestors walked, marking the ceremony grounds and ancestral pathways and showing where it is safe to walk and where Country must be left undisturbed. Some of what is marked is shared freely; some sites are noted only for those with the cultural authority to read them. In Jade's own words: "When I close my eyes, I see Atnwengerrp from an aerial view. Nourishing bush tucker, the song lines, sacred sites and deep red colours that evolve throughout the day. I project that into every dreaming I produce."

Gradients and colour palettes shift through the work to reflect the land at different seasons. In later pieces, Jade has layered a second meaning over the same foundation, once the tracklines are laid down, she paints over them with imagery of renewal, wildflowers pushing through the earth, Country breathing after rain or fire - so the ancestral paths are never erased, only carefully held beneath what grows above them.