Josie Kunoth Petyarre

Josie Kunoth Petyarre was born in approximately 1959 in Alhakere Country in the Utopia Region of Central Australia. Her father is Alex Ngwarai and her mother is Polly Ngale, a well known and respected artist from Utopia. Josie has four siblings – Maisie, Sammy, Audrey and David. Her family is from the Anmatyerre language group. Central Art is pleased to not only work with Josie but her mother and aunties, Kathleen & Angelina Ngale.

In 1989 Josie was involved in the Utopia Community project, later titled “Utopia: A Picture Story”, which introduced the women of Utopia to batik silk. The women would design silk batiks telling traditional stories, scenes from their lives and Dreamtime stories. This particular project was such a success that the entire collection of 88 pieces was acquired by the Holmes a Court Collection and toured around Australia and overseas. Josie’s contribution to the project was a story titled “The Hungry People”, the scene shows people armed with weapons fighting amongst each other over the distribution of food. Within the scene are traditional hunting implements as well as bush tucker and native wildlife.

The following year another community project titled “A Summer Project” came to Utopia. This project introduced the women to modern/western art mediums such as canvas and acrylic paints. For many of the women this was the beginning of an explosion of artistic talent, colour, and creativity and introduced the art world to talents such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Gloria Petyarre. The paintings from the project were also exhibited around Australia and well very well received.

Josie’s paintings often represented “Awelye” or women’s ceremonial body pain designs and “Atnwelarr” or better known as Yam, which would depict the life cycle of the Bush Yam. This is a significant totem for certain families in Utopia. The women dig for yams and this provides an important staple food source for the community. Women will often pay homage to the bush yam during their Awelye ceremonies. The artwork which Central Art had available was a wonderful example of her Atnwelarr paintings, bright contrasting colours which seem to move freely against each other.

Josie is married to Dinni Kemarre and in 2005 she began to make sculptures of animals and figurines in ceremonial attire, she was soon followed by Dinni who was previously a stockman. Together they collaborated to produce some wild coloured painted wooden sculptures as well as quirky objects based on contemporary themes. In 2006 together they produced painted sculptures of Australian Football League players from each team. They were invited to Melbourne to have these exhibited in 2007 at AFL World. They attended the exhibition and attended that year’s grand final. This experience led Josie to produce a realist painting of her Melbourne experience; this was later acquired by the National Museum of Australia.

In 2008 she was living at Pungalindum an outstation near Utopia with her husband, their children and grandchildren. It was a busy year for her – she and Dinni were joint finalists in the X-strata Coal Emerging Indigenous Art Award at the Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane. They had brightly painted sculptures of everyday objects such as table, chairs and even a police wagon. Jodie was also a selected entrant in the 25th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award exhibition, and the Basil Sellers Art Prize at Ian Potter Museum in Melbourne.

In 2009, as further recognition, Josie had several of her paintings featured in the Indigenous Law Bulletin. Her artworks whether paintings or her sculptures are represented in collections such as the National Museum of Australia as well as La Culture en Couleur in Paris, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, the Holmes a Court Collection and the Kerry Stokes Collection. She has also had her artwork exhibited around Australia.