Skin: Mbitjana (Mpetyan)

Language Group: Anmatyerr

Region: Camel Camp, Utopia, Northern Territory

Dreaming: Bush Plum Dreaming

Elizabeth Mbitijana is a traditional Indigenous artist living and working on her homelands at Camel Camp, Utopia in central Australia. An Anmatyerr woman, she is the talented daughter of artist Kathleen Ngala (Kngale).

Her work celebrates bush plum dreaming the story of which has been passed to down to her from her mother Kathleen (now deceased) and her aunties Angelina Ngala and Polly Ngala. These older women taught Elizabeth her craft and she has now defined and refined her own mesmeric style of depicting the bush plum. 

Elizabeth Mbitjana’s style is much more similar to that of her Auntie Angeline Ngala as she paints fine layers of white dots over a dark background and then scatters over coloured dots to create a shimmering multi-dimensional effect. Both artists paint fine layers of white over colour create a multi-dimensional effect to reveal the Bush Plum (Ankwekety) and her country of Arlparra.

Elizabeth’s paintings can also be seen as depictions of the topography of their country as they reflect the changing seasonal influences on the Bush Plum plant which is of great significance to the Anmatyerr and Alyawarr women of the Eastern Desert region. 

• 2016 - Japingka Aboriginal Art Gallery, Perth WA