In her paintings, Susan 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.

Susan sketches her entire work in pencil before begins applying acrylic paint. She then applies her paint with the finely sharpened end of a stick. The result is a myriad of expertly executed dots forming an abstract whole. She takes months to complete her larger more complex works.

Susan’s inspiration for her paintings is derived from her knowledge of Awely and the ceremonies associated with it. Awely refers to the ceremonial world of women, women’s social structure and ritual knowledge and is commonly known as women’s business. It also includes women’s ceremonial body designs.

Susan learnt about Awely designs while painting on the bodies of women about to take part in a ceremony. The many striped designs painted on the upper torsos of ceremonial dancers are the source of inspiration for her paintings. 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, Hardie Grant Books, Fine Arts Museum San Francisco.