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Eddie Blitner is from Naiyalrindji country on the mighty Roper River, south east of Katherine in the Northern Territory (down the Roper Highway at Yugal Mangi Nkugurr Community). Eddie started painting at an early age where he watched and learned from his renowned clan leader grandfathers Fred, Gerry and Donald Blitner and other Elders who taught him to blend ochre, apply paint and to carve. They passed on stories of the work they were doing. Other members of this clan (Barbil) taught him how to make flint spear heads, craft boomerangs and traditional hunting using the weapons to hunt, fish, find...

Few stories capture people’s imagination like that of the “Seven Sisters”. The Seven Sisters Story is told by aboriginal people all over Australia. The stories vary from area to area, but one common factor is that the Seven Sisters are always watchful or running away from the unwelcome advances of a male (Orion). In NSW, the sisters are called Mayi-mayi. Mayi-mayi were chased by a man called Wurunna. He succeeds in catching two of the women by using trickery. Eventually they escape and rise up into the sky forming the star constellation we know as Pleiades. In the Kimberley area,...

Today, I'd like to introduce you to Eileen Bird Kngwarreye (pronounced Ung-wahr-ay). Eileen is an Eastern Arrernte woman, and her country is Arnumarra, near Gem Tree northeast of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Her family grew up at Harts Range where her brothers and sisters continue to live. Eileen grew up on her country at Harts Range but moved to southern Utopia to marry her husband, the late Paddy Bird. Together, they had eleven children (Maggie, Tanya and Alvira Bird among them). Paddy's mother was a renowned artist named Ada Bird Petyarre, sister to the famous Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre....

The Anaty (desert yam or bush potato) is a staple food for the Aboriginal people of Utopia. They are tubers, or swollen roots, of the Ipomoea costata, a fast-growing creeper with large purplish-pink trumpet flowers. It is usually found in the Acacia scrub lands and the yams grow underground with its shrub growing above ground, up to 1 metre high. The anaty can be harvested at any time of the year and can sometimes be hard to locate as it can be growing as deep as 90cm underground. It tastes much like a common sweet potato and it is usually cooked by placing...

Cross-hatching, is a style that has been used in art making for many years by many civilisations. Its most common application in art making is in drawing where the artist wishes to 'fill' or shade a part of the artwork. Hatching is generally made by close parallel lines executed in drawing materials such as ink, pencil, charcoal, crayon, paint and the like, whereas cross-hatching is what it sounds like; another hatching pattern crossing the first one. In Australian Aboriginal Art, the fine technique of cross-hatching (or 'Rarrk') has taken on a more structured and stylised appearance, and can have significant meaning...