Akwerlkerrmwerlkerr - Bush Turkey Dreaming - Genevieve Loy Kemarre

This painting tells the story of the Bush Turkey Dreaming, an important Anmatyerre ancestral narrative passed down to Genevieve Pwerle by her father, the respected elder and artist Cowboy Loy Pwerle.
The Dreaming follows the restless movements of the Bush Turkey as it roams its Country, scouring the ground for fallen seeds and tracking the scent of fresh water. With keen instinct, it navigates the open plains, stopping to drink at a waterhole before continuing its search. In Genevieve’s depiction, these journeys are mapped in fluid, rhythmic patterns that trace the bird’s path through Country. The lines, curves, and colour fields evoke the shifting textures of the land — the spinifex grasses, seed-laden shrubs, and parched creek beds of the desert.
This Country is known as Antwengerrp, lying to the west of the Sandover River on Utopia Station in Central Australia. For Genevieve, painting Bush Turkey Dreaming is both an act of cultural inheritance and a continuation of her family’s artistic legacy. Each brushstroke affirms her role as a storyteller and custodian of these ancestral narratives, ensuring the journey of the Bush Turkey remains vividly alive in the minds of future generations.