Susan Pitjara Hunter is sister to artists Annie, Jessie and Sandy. Her Dreaming is Awely and she calls her work Bush Women Dreaming.

In her paintings, Pitjara Hunter symbolizes all that is associated with Awely - the decorated torsos of the women, the women's ceremonial sites or dreaming places where women are gathered and the other representations of the ceremony – digging and music sticks, coolamons and feather adornments.

It is this system of beliefs which form the basis of women’s law, social structure, kinship and governance. This set of beliefs maintains order within the community.
For the Alyawarr and Anmatyarr ‘Bush men and women’, the past is still alive and vital today and the Ancestor Spirits and their powers are present in the forms into which they changed at the end of the Dreamtime, as the stories reveal.

'At dusk each day, women begin the verses of the song cycle that tell of the Ancestor coming to that place. The song ‘brings’ the power closer, with each verse naming the country or plants and telling of incidents on the way. Women paint their upper bodies with ocher during this phase and sing and ‘dance’ the Ancestor along. These Ancestors may appear as super-powerful humans or in the form of animals such as honey ants or snakes.’An extract from Spirit Country by Jennifer Isaacs.

This work is on exhibition at:

Without Pier Gallery320 Bay Street
Cheltenham
2-20 March 2011