Katie and Janie Petyarre Morgan

Katie and Janie Petyarre Morgan are Alyawarra women from Ingkwelaye (Kurrajong Bore), a traditional country area in the Utopia region of Central Australia. Sisters Katie and Janie started their artistic career using non-traditional materials in the late seventies and early eighties with the batik program that was initially introduced by the first art and craft coordinators Jenny Green and later Julia Murray. Janie and Katie were involved in the ‘Utopia: A Picture Story’ exhibition featuring a collection of 88 silk batiks that are now part of the Holmes ‘a Court Collection. From there, there was a natural progression from batik to applying paint to canvas.

Using a series of intricate dots of varying sizes in circular and star patterns Katie and Janie express the cultural importance of the fruits and flowers of their traditional dreaming story ‘Arkarley’ meaning Bush Orange or Wild Orange.