Skin: Kemarre

Language Group: Anmatyarr

Region: Utopia, Northern Territory

Dreaming: Snake

Dinny Kunoth Kemarre was born in 1954 on Utopia, a cattle station in central Australia. In his teens he was taught how to ride stock horses and he became a proficient stockman in the area mustering, branding and droving cattle.

Later in the 1970s when Utopia became an Aboriginal freehold property and was renamed Urapuntja he began honing his artistic skills sculpting and painting. He and his wife Josie Petyarr began sculpting naive figures of animals and birds. In the 90s he also began making football figures many of which have gone into private collections. In 2016 a group of these AFL figures representing heroes of every team went on display at Parliament House in Canberra to celebrate Reconciliation Week.

Dinny’s naive paintings of bush football matches, local rodeos and horse racing at Harts Range (Atitjer) depict a rich story of contemporary life in outback central Australia. His paintings of these annual bush race meetings are atmospheric, quirky and amusing as are his depictions of the local communities’ bush football matches. AFL football is extremely popular in the NT and Utopia and each community emulates a national team. Some of the local teams include the Soapy Bore Crows, Irrultja Port Power, Apungalingum Eagles, the Mulga Bore Magpies, Arlparra Dockers and Arnkawenyerr Swans. Exhibitions celebrating these paintings have been held in exhibitions in Melbourne and at the Art Gallery of South Australia.

• Artbank

• Berndt Museum of Anthropology, University of Western Australia, WA

• City of Perth Collection, Perth, Western Australia

• Gold Coast City Art Collection, Qld

• Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, Western Australia

• Art Gallery of South Australia