Description

Aboriginal Art Playing Cards – Jeannie Mills Pwerle

Add culture and meaning to your game time with these stunning Aboriginal Art Playing Cards featuring the artwork “Anaty” by respected Aboriginal artist Jeannie Mills Pwerle.

“Anaty” represents the native bush yam, an important food source and cultural symbol for many Aboriginal communities. The artwork reflects traditional knowledge, connection to Country, and the beauty of Indigenous storytelling through art. Each card in this deck showcases elements of this vibrant design, turning a classic set of playing cards into a unique cultural experience.

Made from high-quality card stock with a smooth finish, each deck features 54 playing cards printed on 280gsm poker paper ensuring durability and smooth shuffling with every hand. Perfect for family game nights, travel, or as a thoughtful gift, these playing cards are both practical and meaningful.

Whether you’re a collector of Aboriginal art, looking for a unique Australian souvenir, or searching for a culturally inspired gift, this card deck is a beautiful way to celebrate Indigenous art in everyday life.

Celebrate culture, connection to Country, and the beauty of Aboriginal art with every game.

Features:

• Authentic Aboriginal artwork “Anaty” by Jeannie Mills Pwerle

• Standard 52-card deck plus jokers

• Premium-quality, durable card stock

• Smooth finish for easy handling and shuffling

• Compact and portable – ideal for travel and gifting

• A unique Australian souvenir or cultural gift

Care: When required, wipe product with a dry cloth

Measurements: Package Dimensions – 10cm (height) x 7cm (width) x 2cm (depth)

Product Dimensions – 8.7cm (height) x 6.2cm (width) x 1.5cm (depth)

About the Artist and Artwork

Artwork based on art by Jeannie Mills Pwerle’s Anaty.

Jeannie Mills Pwerle is a great painter from the Utopia region of the Northern Territory, north east of Alice Springs. Jeannie has her traditional country at Irrwelty and Atnwengerrp, and has been part of the main painting group for over 25 years.

Jeannie paints the Bush Yam, with the local name of Anaty (also sometimes called Pencil Yam). The Bush Yam is a long tuber a bit like a carrot, dug up on the Utopia homelands where it is highly valued as a traditional food source.

Jeannie Mills Pwerle 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.

What is Jeannie’s connection to batik?

For a decade the Utopia artists had developed their skills in the realm of batik making, bringing their traditional stories and designs to decorate dyed textile fabrics. By developing the skills of layered colours built up on the fabric from lightest to darkest, the artists had a great facility which allowed them to bring new approaches to painting when they started working with acrylic on canvas.

The artists also used their skill of building up layers to create veils of colour through which the underlying colours could be seen. The stylistic inventions that came from this shared history by the artists was the beginning of a new creative burst of painting that established Utopia artists at the forefront of popular artistic success in the Aboriginal art sphere.

Current Practice

Jeannie Mills works with an abstract set of colours, refining her images over many, 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.

The entire painting can be perceived as an abstract set of colours. These colours are what makes the composition and what creates the path for your eyes to travel around the canvas.

Find more products from Jeannie Mills Pwerle here.

Find more Aboriginal playing cards here.