Josie PETRICK KEMARRE - Bush Berries

ADG: 1338

ADG1338
Bush Berries, 1997
91 x 61cm

Josie Petrick Kemarre – Biography

Born c.1945
Language Anmatyerre
Country Santa Teresa, Eastern Desert, Northern Territory
Region Soakage Bore/ Harts Range, Utopia, Northern Territory
Dreamings Traditional Women’s Stories, Bush Foods, Ancestral Dreamings

Josie Petrick Kemarre commenced painting around 1990 and is the niece of the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Josie's first job was working at the Santa Teresa mission as a chef. She met her late husband, Robin there, and after her bush marriage moved with him to an area of Utopia called Mt Swan. Josie has 7 children and also raised her sister’s son. Josie has worked as a translator for the Central Land Council.

Josie’s paintings are intimately associated with women’s awelye ceremonies (ceremony/dancing) and women’s ancestral stories. Based on the native plants of her homeland and her favourite bush tucker species in their various stages of growth, Josie’s aerial depictions of Bush Tucker feature overlapping dots with only a semblance of Indigenous iconography, while her Bush Yam Dreaming paintings are explosions of wild colour.

In her Women’s Ancestral Dreamings Josie includes iconic symbols and dots in different colours. These Dreamings depict the landscape and the seasonal cycle of the wild bush berry in the barren desert landscape, transformed into abundant vegetation after rain. Women gather these edible bush berries when ripe, as they are a valuable source of nutrition, and can be ground into a paste and dried. Women’s ceremonies for these Dreamings ensure fertility, regrowth, food abundance and increase in subsequent seasons.

Exhibitions
Embassy of Australia, New York City, USA
1999  United Nations, New York City, USA      
Embassy of Australia in Washington DC.
United Nations in New York

Collections
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC
Corrigan Collection
Holmes a Court Collection, Perth WA
Kerry Stokes Collection
Artbank, Sydney NSW
Charles Sturt University Collection
Mem Aziz Collection, Melbourne

Ranking - Most Important Aboriginal Artists c. 2008
Rank amongst Living Indigenous Artists - 55
Rank amongst all Indigenous Artists - 148