11 CHRISTINE NICHOLLS —‘OLD LADY MOB’ CHRISTINE NICHOLLS Christine Nicholls spoke with Kathleen Petyarre in September 2004, when she met Kathleen with her sisters Myrtle and Violet, to talk about new work that was exhibited as part of the ‘Body Painting Series’, at the Coo-ee Gallery, Sydney, opening on 11 November 2004, in an exhibition entitled ‘Arnkerrth: Kathleen Petyarre, Abie Loy’. Christine spoke again with Kathleen in December 2004 (with Penny Hoile of Gallerie Australis, which represents Kathleen) specifically for this special collection of articles. Kathleen was asked about aspects of her work discussed at the symposium ‘Mountain Devil Lizard Dreaming’ held at the Uni- versity of Tasmania in March 2003, to which she had been invited but which she had been unable to attend. 22 september 2004 Christine Nicholls: Kathleen, what can you tell me about your new body of work, about these new paintings? Kathleen Petyarre: These paintings are our Arnkerrth (Mountain Devil Lizard) body painting from the old days, when we would paint up our bodies and dance—they are paintings about our body designs from those old days. We used yellow and white ochre. We put them on our skin, on top of red ochre body paint. We also had black. We used little sticks—tyepal—to paint that ochre on our bodies. Christine Nicholls: What makes you want to paint these works? Kathleen Petyarre: I’ve been thinking a lot about those old days and how we used to put that body paint on ourselves. I’ve been thinking back a lot, how we don’t do it now. The last time — ‘old lady mob’ interview