About the Artwork

There are many types of waterholes that Anangu can use, and their intimate knowledge of the environment helps them know where and when to find water. Sometimes a soakage may have dried up, and the women must use their digging sticks to search for water beneath the surface. They transport it back to their families in wooden bowls, which they carry on their heads.

Dots and lines represent the patterns of different desert vegetation types, while concentric circles linked by lines can symbolize waterholes, river courses, and the traveling and resting places of Creation Ancestors and Anangu.

Anangu follow the traditions of their Tjukurpa, or Creation Law, which encodes essential survival skills. There is inma, or ceremony, for all parts of the country, teaching and celebrating the ways people fit within both the environment and social systems.