Born: 1965Language group: AlyawarrCountry: Atnwengerrp Jeannie Mills Pwerle is an established painter from the Utopia region of the Northern Territory, north east of Alice Springs. Her mother is well known Utopian artist Dolly Mills Petyarre and her uncle the late Greeny Purvis Petyarre. Her great aunt is the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye. Jeannie was a contributing artist to the first Utopia project where women painted their stories onto canvas. This historic exhibition, held in 1989 and titled “Utopia Women’s Paintings, the First Works on Canvas, A Summer Project” was a turning point for the group of Utopia artists. Jeannie lives a traditional life at Utopia as a Ngangker (a traditional healer or doctor) providing advice and bush medicines to people of her community. She lives in Ahalpere country with senior elder Lena Pwerle, and the two are heavily involved in educating and encouraging other women to participate in painting, exhibitions and culture. Jeannie paints the Bush Yam, with the local name of Anaty (also called Pencil Yam). The Bush Yam is a long tuber a bit like a carrot, from the Utopia homelands where it is highly valued as a traditional food source. Jeannie works with an abstract set of colours and has refined her images over many years to creates a highly abstracted form of painting. Her works can incorporate hundreds of linear shapes representing Bush Yams that abound in colour, and with each shape outlined with a row of white dots. By depicting the Yam Dreaming in their paintings, indigenous artists are able to pay homage to this significant plant and encourage its continual rejuvenation.