Humpy at Camel Camp, Utopia

Nearly a quarter of a century has passed since we first crossed the sandy river bed and drove through the ‘front gate’ and into Utopia. Utopia, an area of just under 2,000 square kilometres to the North East of Alice Springs, is semi-arid desert country inhabited by Aboriginal people. An art movement has flourished there and from the mid 1970s non traditional media such as acrylic paint and canvas have been used.

Aboriginal art of course means a continent of creativity,  a vast range of styles and materials, depending on the region and its cultural traditions. This is part of why collecting Aboriginal art is such a complex, enthralling and engaging thing to do. It is the great art of survival, the cultural maps of food and water, it is the art of the spiritual, the recognition of connection to place and the land. It represents the constant monitoring of the land, not stilled by time but always contemporary and enquiring.

Angelina Pwerle painting at Camel Camp

Utopia has been particularly important in the recent history of Aboriginal art and cultural practice as it was the heart of a women’s art movement of considerable distinction, producing, now internationally famous women artists, their work including batiks, carvings and paintings on canvas. These works are embodied with traditional meaning and are a spiritual and historical record of culture and law.

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