Art That Does a Job

In this tradition, art is tied to Country — not land as scenery, but land as a living relative with its own laws. A person's Country decides which stories, symbols, and ceremonies they are allowed to paint. And the painting is not just a picture of the Dreaming. By making it, performing it, and renewing it, the artist is believed to keep the Dreaming working — to maintain the land and the law it holds.

One artist made the world pay attention: Emily Kame Kngwarreye. She lived most of her life in the remote community of Utopia and only began painting on canvas in her late seventies. In just eight years she produced thousands of works, using shimmering dots and flowing lines to map the yam Dreaming of her Country. Today her paintings hang in major museums and sell for some of the highest prices ever paid for Australian art.