In Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming 1994, Kathleen Petyarre depicts the ancestral tracks left by the lizard Arnkerrth, also known as the mountain devil or thorny devil (Moloch horridus). The creature is one of Petyarre’s totems and is attached to Atnangker, a small community in the artist’s homeland of Utopia, some 290 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

The Anmatyerre and Alyawerre peoples hold sacred Dreaming stories about Arnkerrth, believing that the lizard distributes coloured ochre across the landscape. Petyarre carries the cultural responsibilities of caring for Arnkerrth, which she expresses in her paintings.