Born: 1920, Australia
Died: 18 March 2006
Country most active: Australia
Also known as: Minnie Purla or Minnie Motorcar Apwerl
The following is excerpted from Infinite Women founder Allison Tyra’s book The View from the Hill: Women Who Made Their Mark After 40.
Other Utopia artists include (Emily Kame) Kngwarreye’s sister-in-law, Minnie Pwerle, and Pwerle’s daughter, Barbara Weir. Born in the 1940s, Weir was part of the Stolen Generation; unlike her relatives who grew up in Aboriginal communities, Weir was one of countless Indigenous children taken from their homes and placed in white-run facilities where administrators tried to indoctrinate their cultures out of the children. They were punished for speaking their languages, and eventually the only word she could remember was the name of her home, Atnwengerrp. It wasn’t until the 1970s that she returned, unable to communicate but reunited with the mother that she had been told was dead. She moved back with her children in 1977, reclaiming her language and becoming active in efforts to protect Indigenous land rights. Like other members of her family, she began working with batiks, moving to painting in 1988. Weir also helped her aunt, Kngwarreye, navigate the Western “Art Business,” encouraged other Utopia artists, and played an important role in the creation and promotion of the Aboriginal Art Association of Australia. She would go on to travel extensively throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia to paint and exhibit her work, and was active into her 80s. Weir’s mother, Pwerle, has birth dates listed anywhere from 1910 to 1922, but like her fellow community artists, she began working with batiks in the 1970s before moving on to painting. Her work was not exhibited until 2000, possibly as a result of a greater interest in contemporary Aboriginal art as her sister-in-law, Kngwarreye’s, profile increased.