UTOPIA HOMELANDS

The Utopia homelands is an 1800 square km property, located 230 km north east of Alice Springs. These are traditionally owned lands which have been reclaimed from the early settlers in 1979 and which continue to be lived upon in traditional ways. The anmatyerre and Alyawarre population of several hundred have worked the land as stockmen and women and now generate an income through their art. Many ...artist from The Utopia Homelands gained recognition through the medium of batik with the supoport of the Goverment and CAAMA' 88, the Utopia women created a major work entitled ' A Picture Story' that in turn exhibited in Australia and overseas, and was later acquired by the Holmes a Court Collection, 1989. Canvas and acrylic were introduced in the late 1980's where the freedom of artistic expressions relating to the Dreamings of these Aborigines were encouraged and developed. Through the progression of works to canvas the skills and detail depicting their country and their place within their Dreamings have come to represent contemporary Aboriginal Art of today.