Sacha Long b. 1990

Sacha Long Petyarre grew up in the expansive Indigenous homelands region of Utopia in the Northern Territory, some 240km north-east of Mparntwe (Alice Springs). Utopia is a region of great cultural and artistic significance. Sacha is the daughter of artist Marcia Turner Petyarre, who spent her formative years of painting alongside the likes of Minnie Pwerle, Kathleen Petyarre and Gloria Petyarre, who first popularised the Bush Medicine Leaf style that Sacha predominantly paints.

Sacha depicts the native botanicals that are found in her ancestral country, a variety of which have been used for medicinal purposes by Indigenous people of Central Australia for tens of thousands of years. Bush medicine is a deeply significant and spiritual aspect of Aboriginal culture. Sacha depicts the medicinal flowers and leaves that are gathered and prepared by women, in particular one method where they are placed in the sun to dry, before being ground into a fine powder and mixed with animal fats to extract medicinal qualities and create a healing balm.

Sacha creates artworks with seemingly effortless visual rhythm, and prefers to work in bright, colourful palettes, lending her paintings a contemporary aesthetic.