Colleen Wallace, Aboriginal Artist

Colleen Wallace Nungurrayi is an Eastern Arrernte artist who grew up between Ltyentye Apurte (Santa Teresa) and Mparntwe (Alice Springs) in the Northern Territory. Colleen began painting in the 1990s, encouraged by her stepmother, esteemed artist Kathleen Kemarre Wallace. Colleen is married to Colin Bird, who is son to the famous Utopia artist Ada Bird Petyarre, and they have five children together.

Colleen was born in 1974 at Ltyentye Apurte, and the artistic environment she grew up in was extraordinary even by Central Australian standards. Her stepmother Kathleen was a founding member of Keringke Arts, the community art centre established at Santa Teresa in 1989, and became the defining figure of the Eastern Arrernte art style that flowered there — a teacher at the community school, co-author of the acclaimed book Listen Deeply: Let These Stories In (2009), and designer of the celebrated stained-glass mural at the Catholic church in Alice Springs. Painting spread through the household: Colleen's sisters Gabrielle and Cindy Wallace are artists too.

Colleen's most popular artworks are drawn from a style that was passed down to her by her stepmother Kathleen, depicting 'Dreamtime Sisters', called 'Irrernte-arenye' by Eastern Arrernte people. In Eastern Arrernte telling, the Dreamtime Sisters are three spirit women who first roamed and formed the earth in the Creation time, and for Colleen and Nungarrayi people they remain guides as well as guardians. The spirits watch over important areas of land, such as sacred or ceremonial sites. She uses the traditional dotting technique of the Central & Western desert, combined with fine linework, to depict the Irrernte-arenye floating above the sacred sites, protecting them and the people who visit and care for them. These paintings are highly sought after from Colleen.

Prior to being passed down the Dreamtime Sisters story by Kathleen, Colleen previously painted stories from her father's country near Gem Tree, north-east of Alice Springs. Colleen's grandfather and recognised senior artist, Kenny Tilmouth Penangke, gave her permission to paint this Dreaming. This Yam story also links to Ada Bird Petyarre and her country around Mulga Bore.

Colleen's marriage wove that thread of Country directly into her life: she now divides her time between Mparntwe (Alice Springs) and Mulga Bore — the Country of her mother-in-law Ada Bird Petyarre, and the very landscape to which the Yam story connects. There she works as a teacher at the Mulga Bore School, carrying on in the classroom the same work of passing knowledge between generations that runs through her painting family. Alongside the Dreamtime Sisters, her repertoire includes Awelye (women's ceremony designs) and Arlatyeye, the Bush Yam Dreaming, linking her Eastern Arrernte inheritance with the painting traditions of the Utopia region into which she married.

Colleen is celebrated for her precise dot design and vibrant command of colour, and her work has been featured in many exhibitions within Australia and the US.