Gloria Petyarre

Gloria has painted the leaves that are found by the women in the desert country around Utopia, some 260km NNE of Alice Springs. These leaves are found under a specific tree or collected where the accumulate after blowing around the sand hill country. After collecting them, the leaves are ground with water to make an ointment that has healing properties for wounds, insect bites and stings. Her paintings reinforce the medicinal knowledge of her people using traditional bush and plant remedies, in particular the women, as well as acknowledging the ancestors who gave them this knowledge.