Minnie Pwerle

I assembled a collection of Minnie’s paintings from 2005 and 2006, including her final work. In March 2006, Minnie visited my gallery with her daughter, Barbara Weir, and granddaughter, Charmaine. Before leaving later that day for Utopia with her grandson, Patrick, she created a beautiful 125 x 250 cm artwork. The next morning, Barbara returned in tears and told me her mother had fallen asleep and had not woken up. I decided that the paintings in this collection would either remain with me or be sold only to a place that would display them together, giving proper recognition to this great late artist. After Minnie passed away, I asked her daughter Barbara whether she had any concerns about publishing her mother’s work and including an image of her. Barbara replied that Minnie would have been proud and had wanted everyone to see her paintings. I removed all the paintings from their stretchers because our Outback Gallery is still under development, and we plan to create a dedicated space where visitors can view the collection.