Awelye - Poly Ngal

Renowned for her celebrated Arnwetky (conkerberry) paintings, dense, shimmering fields that map the seasonal abundance of this important desert fruit, Poly Ngal rarely departed from this ancestral subject. This work is a significant and uncommon shift in her practice, turning instead to Awelye, the women’s body-painting designs associated with ceremony and women’s law in Ahalpere Country.

Composed in fluid green and blue linear patterns, the painting echoes the ochre lines traditionally drawn across the chest, breasts, and upper body during ceremonial preparation. These repeated, confident strokes capture the rhythm and movement of these markings as they animate the skin, alive with song, dance, kinship and Country. Though abstract in form, the painting is deeply grounded in cultural knowledge, offering a rare glimpse into the ceremonial foundations that underpin Ngal’s identity and artistic legacy.