women's past, present, future

A young Maori woman with a facial tattoo, Rotorua, New Zealand, late 19th century.

Katjarra Butler (b1946) Pintupi people, Australia

Korrmangutja (2021)

📷 Hippies Happiness

Common Blossom Bat (Syconycteris australis)

The Common Blossom Bat is a tiny nectar-loving bat, feasting on nectar and pollen from bottlebrush, paperbark, banksia and gum tree blossoms.

Found in eastern and northeastern Australia, these bats travel long distances at night to find enough food to give them the energy they need.

But these little bats are much more visible on nights with a bright full moon. So, these tiny bats will delay their departure from their roosts to hide from predators like owls.

The Common Blossom Bat is an important pollinator of many plants, carrying six times as much pollen as birds.

Pintupi Art: Mapping Country Through the Desert

Every line, circle, and field of dots in Pintupi Art represents far more than a visual design. These remarkable paintings are expressions of ancestral journeys, sacred sites, and the deep relationship between people and Country that has been maintained across the Western Desert for countless generations.

From the early days of Papunya to the homeland communities of Kintore and Kiwirrkurra, Pintupi artists transformed ceremonial knowledge into one of the world's most influential contemporary art movements. Their paintings shimmer with movement, reveal vast networks of Tingari songlines, and offer a unique way of understanding landscape—not as scenery, but as living cultural knowledge.

Finished this piece earlier. Yuku, our Paakantyi Ancestor Being, for whom the sun is named after. She danced across the sky when the world was shrouded in darkness. Her fire stick guiding her way, and gifting the world with light and heat.

Happy International Day of the World’s Indigenous People.

Mimili Minyma Women's Collaborative APY Lands, South Australia

Kapi (Water) 2022

synthetic polymer paint on linen

I have my first exhibition of 2026 in February and I feel very underprepared. A writer from a local newspaper reached out to me to talk about the upcoming show two weeks ago and I haven’t replied yet. This is the part of creating art that goes on show that makes me anxious: Being perceived.

I don’t like being the centre of attention. Opening night is always mixed with dread because everyone is looking at me, and I just want to tell stories. I know it seems silly, I know people want to talk to the artist, but it’s a lot. Hope I’m not self-sabotaging.

📍Bungle Bungle Range in Purnululu National Park in Kimberley, Australia

I have recently visited the Carnarvon gorge in Australia, where the Bidjara and Karingbal people sculpted hundreds of vulvas on the rock.

Below is the little piece of interpretive information that was available on site:

A woman’s story

Women are responsible for looking after some of the stories etched along this section of the sandstone wall—women’s business.

You will see engraved over and over again the motif of the human vulva. Our Elders tell the story of this design being a fertility symbol.

For #WorldSerpentDay: Manasa, the Hindu snake goddess, trio of late 19th/early 20th c. Indian images:

1. Manasa, The Snake Goddess c. 1890, Kalighat watercolor, graphite, ink, and tin on paper Cleveland Museum of Art

2. "Manasa, goddess presiding over snakes." c.1895, Calcutta (Kolkata) color lithograph/popular print British Museum