BORN: c 1930
REGION: Utopia
LANUGUAGE GROUP: Anmatyerre and Alyawarr.
View Galya’s artwork here
Galya Pwerle’s country is Atnwengerrp and her language is Anmatyerre and Alyawarr. She is in her early 80’s (no records exist) and has had little exposure to western culture.In fact, Galya (like her sisters) picked up a paintbrush for the first time in 2004.
The youngest of the Pwerle Sisters, most of Galya’s family are all artists including her oldest very famous sister, the late Minnie Pwerle, her niece Barbara Weir, plus her extended family Aileen and Betty Mpetyane.
All encouraged Galya and her older sisters Molly and Emily, to paint with their famed sister Minnie in 2004.
Barbara Weir organised the first workshop of the sisters which was held at Ultja station. This inaugural workshop heralded the start of an amazing painting experience. Just as Minnie showed the glorious freedom of expression, Molly, Emily and Galya followed suit.
Another workshop was arranged and so it continues.
Minnie took a close and supportive role in the development of her younger sisters. The sisters had an instant response to applying paint onto canvas and developing expressions of their dreamings that have been passed down from generation to generation.
The passing on of these symbols and patterns ensures the survival of their culture. The three sisters live at Irrultja, a small Utopia settlement which is home to about 100 people. One of the main subjects of Galya’s paintings is the grass Portulaca oleracea.
The tiny black seed produced by the grass has been a vital food source for the indigenous people, who use the seeds in a number of ways – ground down to make flour for bread or biscuits, or mixed with water to make a cordial for drinking.
These grass seeds are the subject of one of the dreaming stories that have been passed down by the Pwerle sisters’ ancestors. The sisters learned about the seeds as they sat with the old people and watched them draw the story on the ground.
Galya paints “Awelye Atnwengerrp” which means women’s ceremony, celebrating Bush Tucker which in Galya’s case, is Bush Melon or Bush Tomato and its Seed. “Bush Melon Seed” is depicted by small curved brushstrokes while the “Bush Melon” works consists of blunt paintbrush dabs that are layered across a body paint design background.
The patterns represent the designs painted on women’s bodies during bush tucker ceremonies, in Atnwengerrp. Both styles use various colours to form abstract pieces of great beauty. During these ceremonies the women dance, and sing, paying homage to their ancestors, the land and the food it provides.
Galya is continually developing her own unique, contemporary style and is proving to be an exciting and progressive artist.
In 2005 and 2008 her work was nominated in the prestigious Telstra Awards held in Darwin.