Region:William's Well

Skin Name: Ampetyane

Language: Eastern Arrernte

Biography

Before I went to school I lived with my parents at Undoolya station, that's where I grew up. My Dad did stock work there. My sister took me to Santa Teresa when I was around ten years old to start school. I left school after Year 11 and worked as a health worker and in the Literacy Unit. Then I went to work with Cait Wait at the art centre. I worked at Keringke Arts for 6 years and became an assistant art co-ordinator. We had our first exhibition "Mpwellare" in 1990 at Araluen, Alice Springs. My painting was also exhibited at the Northern Territory Art Award in Darwin. I was chosen to go to Sydney for the Australian Bicentennial Craft Show in 1988 and then again in 1989. In 1991 we went to New Zealand to exhibit in Wellington and Auckland. My paintings sold interstate and in America. I moved to Alice Springs in 1995. I was taught how to do paintings by Sister Edith, one of the Sacred Heart Nuns, and from my cousins Gabrielle Wallace, Kathleen Wallace and my auntie Therese Ryder. I do some work for the Aboriginal Art and Culture Centre, Gondwana Gallery and Mbantua Art Gallery in Alice Springs. I did some painting for the Heart foundation, a flip chart for Health Clinics around the Territory. Now I work at Irrkerlantye Art

Exhibitions

• 1990 Mpwellare Araluen, Alice Springs
• 1992 Atyelpe, Te Taumata Gallery, Auckland NZ
• June 2000 Altyerre-Iwerre Imerneme - Visions Alice Springs
• Sept 2000-2005 Desert Mob Araluen Alice Springs
• Mar 2001 Embodying Spirit Watch This Space Alice Springs
• June 2001 Bush Women Bush Food Desart Gallery Alice Springs
• Nov 2001 Our Country - Our Place Araluen Alice Springs
• Sept 2002 - 2004 Alice Springs Festival Alice Springs
• Dec 2002 Irrkerlantye Art Exhibition Irrkerlantye Alice Spring
• April 2003 Walkatjara Art Uluru, Uluru
• Sept 2007 Desert Mob Exhibition, Araluen, AliceSprings