Julie Pengarte's Honey Ant Story

On a recent visit to Utopia, Anmatyerre woman Julie Pengarte painted a small 30cm x 30cm artwork titled 'Honey Ant Dreaming' and we took some footage over the two days it took her to complete it. (WATCH NOW).

Julie took a small metal instrument and a paint pot, and lay the small canvas over a smooth plank of wood. Leaning over the canvas, she dipped the instrument into the pot and began creating intricate strings of white dots from the centre of the canvas out.

Honey ants live beneath Mulga trees and hold honey in sacs on their backs which they get from the sweet flowers that bloom on the Mulga tree. Honey ants are a sweet bush food and care is taken not to kill the honey ants when stealing a taste of their honey.

Julie says the larger, coloured dots in her painting represent the honey ants under the ground beneath the trees. The white dotted circles around them are the holes they are found in, and the strings of white dots that link them together represents their eggs.

WATCH NOW