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Barbara Weir Born 1945 - Present

Style
Indigenous

Career Status
Mid Career

Biography
Now considered one of Australia's leading aboriginal painters, Barbara Weir's early life was caught up in the tragedy known as the "Stolen Generations". Born in 1945 at Bundy River station near Utopia, Barbara Weir's mother is the late famous Aboriginal Artist Minnie Pwerle with an Irish father, she was 'hidden' from the age of two, but at nine years, while collecting water, she was taken by Native Welfare to be fostered out to a non-Aboriginal family - her own family believing she had been killed. Barbara returned to her own people at Utopia thirteen years later, and had to relearn her original language. She was reunited with her aunt, the exceptional artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye (c.1910-1996), by whom she had been 'grown up' as a child. Barbara remained in Utopia until 1997 and, apart from her art making, played a major role in a successful land rights claim in 1974. In 1985 she became the first woman President of Urapuntja Council. Barbara is a mother of six children and has thirteen grandchildren. She now lives in Alice Springs and Utopia. Barbara commenced painting with acrylics on canvas in 1989 and developed a sophisticated contemporary painting style. In 1994, Barbara Weir and other Aboriginal women traveled to Indonesia to learn batik techniques. In 1996, Barbara Weir traveled to Europe to exhibit her artworks..

Collections
Art Gallery of South Australia
Adelaide Art Gallery of Queensland
Brisbane Artbank, Sydney Queensland College of Art Griffith University Ebes Collection-Workum
The Netherlands University of Adelaide, Adelaide AMP Collection

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