Collection: Jeannie Mills Pwerle

DOB 1965

Birthplace Utopia NT

Skin name Pwerle

Language Alyawarre

Community Utopia NT

Jeannie Mills Pwerle comes from the community of Utopia, 300kms northeast of Alice Springs, with her traditional country being at Irrwelty and Atnwengerrp. Her mother is Dolly Mills Petyarre and her uncle is Greeny Purvis Petyarre (both of whom are well known artists). Her great aunt is the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, dubbed by art experts as one of the world's best modern and abstract artists.

Raised by a generation of Indigenous artists who were part of the batik producing generation of the 1970s, Jeannie was exposed to the success that these artists experienced as they began to experiment with acrylic on canvas. Jeannie inherited the Anaty (Desert Yam or Bush Potato) Dreaming from her mother, however as an artist, she has depicted this dreaming in a unique style which is all her own.

Paintings by Jeannie predominately represent the flower and seeds of the Anaty, which she enjoys collecting in her homeland. The yam grows underground with a viny shrub growing above ground, up to 1 metre high. It is normally found in the Acacia scrub lands on the spinifex sand plains, and it produces large pink flowers after the summer rain. The Anaty is a tuber (or swollen root) of the shrub and tastes like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked.

The linear work in Jeannie's artworks represent the impressive root system of the yam, and dots represent its seeds. There is an ancient Dreamtime story belonging to the Anaty, which artists continue to be taught as they get older. By depicting the Anaty in their paintings, Indigenous artists pay homage to this significant plant and encourage its continual rejuvenation.