Military attack at waterhole on story day, Ammaroo Station
Artist
Hazel Kngwarreye Morton
(1964)
Date1998
Object number00031856
NamePainting
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsOverall: 875 × 1345 mm
Image: 765 × 1235 mm
Image: 765 × 1235 mm
ClassificationsArt
Credit LineANMM Collection
DescriptionA painting by Hazel Kngwarreye-Kurrajong titled 'Military attack at waterhole on story day, Ammaroo Station'. Handwritten on the back reads "239-798 Hazel Kngwarreye Kurrajong - Utopia NT 'Military attack at waterhole on stormy day. Ammaroo Station' circa 1903, July 1998".
HistoryThe Anmatyerre and Alyawarre did not encounter hostile settlers until later in colonisation. Their arid country kept people away. Unlike the lush environments of the coastal fringes and hinterland of the continent, the centre was the last frontier for development.
The Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people's traditional land first had pastoral lease boarders drawn through their clan lands in 1927. The lease, which was perhaps ironically called 'Utopia' by the first white settlers, covers 18000 square kilometres of desert country. From the 1880s, the first wave of settlers came armed to fight the traditional owners.
However, the Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people did not start to lose the battle until the 1920s and it is the Coniston Massacre of 1928 which is best remembered among the Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people and was the main reason people moved from their land.
In late August, Mounted Constable William Murray led a party of men who killed up to 70 people in a nine-day shooting spree. The exact number is unknown as it was not until1982, 54 years after the massacre, when a land rights hearing took evidence from the Walbiri, that any Aboriginal accounts of the honour were recorded.
Atneltyeye artists often paint richly detailed bush scenes. These aerial views of the bush are densely worked with detailed drawings of meandering trails of animals and people with the focus on ceremonial sites, designs and ritual attire. In 1989, Janice Kngwarreye and another artist, Lucky Kngwarreye began to paint camp scenes and these paintings encouraged other artists to use people in their paintings.
Utopia women played a key role in the 1979 Land Claim hearing which resulted in the community gaining legal title to the former station through the Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act 1976. During the Land Claim hearings, the massacre stories became public knowledge. This subsequently developed into the community deciding to paint a series of paintings on the massacres that had happened on their land.
These stories are still painful to talk about and it has been decided not to paint this subject again.SignificanceMassacres are not the usual subject for Aboriginal artists, the subject is seen as too painful for the community. The Coniston massacre was a major event in the lives of the Anmatyerre and Alyawarre people and seventy years later they are still dealing with its consequences.
c 1924
