Palm Valley c.1945

Early in their careers, many Arrernte artists painted watercolours on traditional-styled artefacts as an alternative to their usual paper and board supports. Here Namatjira has depicted Palm Valley, an important Arrernte site and an oasis in the desert filled with ancient foliage and an abundance of animal life. It was here that important events took place involving a group of ancestral figures, whose bodies came to rest in nearby Palm Paddock. Although this woomera (throwing stick) resembles a utilitarian Arrernte hunting artefact, it was made specifically as a collectable art object and as a surface on which to paint.