Collection: Alvira Bird Mpetyane

DOB: 1984
Tribal Group: Anmatyerre
Community: Ilkawerne (El-go-an-na), Utopia Region, North East of Alice Springs, Northern Territory.

Alvira Bird Mpetyane is an Anmatyerre artist born in 1984.  Raised on the Mulga Bore outstation she is the daughter of artists Eileen Bird and the late Paddy Bird.

Granddaughter of the legendary Ada Bird Petyarre,  a senior law woman and pioneer of the Utopia art movement and artist Lindsay Bird Mpetyane.  Her lineage links her directly to some of Australia's most renown Indigenous artists, including Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kathleen Petyarre.

Born into a family deeply embedded in the Aboriginal art movement, she belongs to the Anmatyerre language group and paints stories connected to her traditional Country, She learned to paint from her grandmother Ada Bird Petyarre, who shared stories of the women’s ceremony as she painted and her grandfather Lindsay Bird Mpetyane. She is the fifth eldest of eleven children born to artists Paddy Bird (deceased) and Eileen Bird. Her grandparents include the late Ada Bird Petyarre and Lindsay Bird Mpetyane one of Utopia’s most renown artists.

Alvira began painting in the mid-1990s assisting her grandmother and aunties.

Her dreamings are:

Awelye (Women's Ceremony): body paint designs applied to women's bodies using ochre, charcoal, and ash during traditional ceremonies.

Ahakeye (Bush Plum) Representing the sweet native currant of the region.

Alpar (Rat-tail Plant) A plant valued for its edible seeds and medicinal properties.

(Mulga Seed)  essential plant food resource from Mulga trees.

Bush Medicine Leaves: Depicting the leaves of the Desert Yam to pay homage to the plant's natural healing properties.

Today, Alvira splits her time between Alice Springs and her traditional lands with her husband and children Her original artworks have been exhibited in group exhibitions and are highly sought after by collectors, throughout Australia and overseas