Awelyeby Lulu Teece Petyarre

The Aboriginal iconography depicted in the beautiful artwork relates to Awelye . It refers specifically to the designs applied to a women's body as part of a ceremony. Awelye is performed by Aboriginal women from Utopia to recall their ancestors, to show respect for their country and to demonstrate their responsibility for the well-being of their community. Since it reflects women's role as the nurturer the Awelye makes connections with the fertility of the land and a celebration of the aboriginal food it provides. It is women's business and is never done in the presence of men. The Awelye ceremony begins with the women painting each others' bodies in designs relating to a particular women's Dreaming and in accordance with their skin name and tribal hierarchy. The Awelye designs represent a range of Dreamings including animals and plants, healing and law. The designs are painted on the chest and shoulders using powders ground from ochre, charcoal and ash. It is applied with a flat stick with padding or with fingers in raw linear and curved lines. This is a meditative and sensual experience. The designs are painted on the chest and shoulders using powders ground from ochre, charcoal and ash. It is applied with a flat stick with padding or with fingers in raw linear and curved lines. This is a meditative and sensual experience.

Artist:Lulu Teece Petyarre
Title:Awelye
ID:0841064
Medium:Acrylic on Belgian Linen
Size:141 x 121 cm
Region:Utopia, Central Australia

Artist

Lulu Teece Petyarre was born in approximately 1955 at Utopia outstation in Central Australia. Lulu is from the Alyawarre language group and her traditional country is Aharrenge. Lulu is the sister of Margaret Turner Petyarre who was an accomplished artist from Utopia who sadly passed away in 2009.

She began painting like many of the women in Utopia during the 1980’s whereby several community projects were run in the community. The Utopia Women’s Batik group was the first of these projects which sought to teach the women of Utopia how to create silk batiks using their traditional Dreamings or bush scenes as decorations. This project was highly successful with the project touring nationally and in Eire and Scotland. It was later acquired in full by the Robert Holmes a Court Collection. Lulu’s batik shared the story of the Kurrajong Seed Dreaming. In fact her silk batik is reminiscent of some of her canvas paintings today.

Lulu later moved to using acrylic paints and canvas as the medium for her artwork. The primary focus of her paintings includes Bush Medicine and Awelye (Women’s Body Paint Design). Her artworks are very detailed and intricate. Central Art is also excited to share one of her alternative paintings, painted in a naive art style. This particular painting depicts the Aboriginal community of Ampilatwatja.

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