Josie (Josepha) Petrick Kemarre

Born:  c. 1945

Language:  Arrente

Country:  Utopia, Northern Territory

Josie was born around c. 1945 (some organisations have her birth as between 1945 – 1954) at the Santa Teresa Mission, approximately 80kms south-east of Alice Springs. Josie was an Arrente speaker

At 16 she married Robin Petyarre (Gloria Petyarre and Kathleen Petyarre’s brother) and moved to his country, MacDonald Downs in Utopia where they had seven children. She had learnt his Anmatyerre language.

After watching Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Gloria and Kathleen Petyarre paint Josie started in 1990. Her main story to paint is the ‘Bush Plum’ which is a basis of bodily and spiritual nourishment. The Bush Plum Creation or Dreaming Story is winds distributing bush plum seeds throughout the ancestral lands, and the recurring fruiting and seeding that follows. 

Josie layers the paint colour by colour. In Tingari Arts she will use five colours to create a bright or very pale painting. Often Josie starts with a red, then overpaints much of the linen with a dark pink, then tangerine, orange and finishing with a shade of yellow.

Robin died in 2008 and now Josie divides her time with family at Number 5 Bore in Utopia (not far from Harts Range) and Alice Springs.

Collections include:

National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne
Charles Sturt University
United Nations, New York

Sources used:

Ryan, Judith, Land Marks, Council of Trustees of the National Gallery of Victoria 2006