Angeline Ngale (Kngale)

View Angeline Ngale's Biography and Curriculum Vitae

Watching Angeline Ngale (Kngale) paint her dazzling clouds of colour on the veranda at Delmore Gallery was fascinating and often exhilarating. Sometimes she would take several weeks to complete a large masterpiece.

Often in summer, the conkerberry bush or wild plum (that she calls anwekety in her Anmatyerre language), inspired her and produced an abundant crop of succulent sweet berries as she completed her paintings. Don Holt recalls often taking visitors to sample this delicious fruit while Angeline put the story of the Wild Plum onto linen, layer upon layer, rooted in the deep red soil of her grandfather’s Country, Arlparra, and the thousands of years that her ancestors have been deeply connected and intricately involved with this prolific berry bush.

Traditionally, Angeline (sometimes called Angelina) and her older sisters, Polly and Kathleen, would cover their upper bodies with emu oil, then using ochre paints they were decorated with specific designs related to the wild plum (anwekety) then they danced and sang (awelye) the story of the anwekety as a vital part of nature's cycle, to ensure the profundity and continued productivity of this valuable food source.

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