Jorna Newberry Indigenous Australian, c.1959-2025

Jorna Newberry  was a Pitjantjatjara artist,  born circa 1959 at Angus Downs.

Jorna lived a traditional Indigenous life in Warakuna and a modern life with her family in Alice Springs.

The late, great Tommy Watson was Jorna’s uncle and was a tremendous influence on her work. Tommy taught her to paint in a multi-layered abstract way, so as to maintain the secrecy of important culture matters.

Jorna initially started to paint in the mid 1990’s at Warakuna. Her paintings represent her country of Irrunytju in the Western Desert,  associated with significant traditional places of spiritual knowledge and ancestral stories,  imbedded in the land.

Jorna developed a distinctive style, with a subtle, colour palette of white, cream and neutrals on black ground. These richly detailed paintings create a sophisticated, contemporary aesthetic. Many represent Ngintaka, a giant perentie lizard and creation ancestral being of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara people.  The Ngintaka songline is the major creation story of the Angatja area, and indicates the significant spiritual connection to their lands. Perentie are tracked for long distances and hunted for food.

Another theme  is the portrayal of Walpa Tjukurpa - the wind dreaming. This is a story of Jorna’s mother’s country at Utantja, a large stretch of sacred ceremonial land that has hilly country and a large rock hole where many people came to paint up, dance and perform ceremony. It is country filled with kangaroos, camels, rock wallabies and birds. 

“The wind ceremony forms winds… creates air to cool the lands…”  Jorna explained that wind also helps in hunting as being downwind from animals made it easier to hunt successfully. In painting this story Jorna created great movement and depth, with repetitive circular patterning, and intricate dotting.  The very surface of these works suggest the movement of wind across the desert sands, which creates eddies and ever changing surface patterns.

Sadly, Jorna Newberry passed away suddenly in February, 2025.