Cultural warning: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are advised that the following contains the names of deceased persons.

Michelle’s Tjala Dreaming (Honey Ant) is a painting by Michelle Lewis, Pitjantjatjara people, recently acquired for the Parliament House Art Collections. The painting depicts how the tjala (honey ants) tunnel through the sand soil, waterholes, trees, and shrubs.

Lewis says that,

I am painting the landscape from above, as you might see it from an airplane or as a bird looking down. It is beautiful country both from on the ground and up above.¹

The artist’s father’s Country is tjala tjukurpa (honey ant dreaming), which she and her family still visit. Tjala are a food source favoured by Anangu, who eat the honey-like liquid from the distended abdomen of the tjala. Tjala live in nests about a metre underground beneath mulga trees. Women dig for tjala by looking for the drill holes under the trees and following the tunnels which the tjala make.²

In 2025, Michelle’s Tjala Dreaming (Honey Ant) was projected onto the façade of Parliament House for Reconciliation and NAIDOC weeks.

Michelle Lewis
Michelle Lewis (born 1983) is a Pitjantjatjara painter, who creates work at Ernabella Arts located in Pukatja Community in the far west of South Australia – Australia’s oldest continuously running Indigenous Art Centre. She is the daughter of senior painter Atipalku Intjalki and master punu (wood) maker Adrian Intjalki and sister to Langaliki and Lynette Lewis. Her art has been shown across Australia and internationally, including at the annual Desert Mob exhibition at Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs and at the Art Gallery of South Australia. 

References
1. Everywhen Art, “Michelle Lewis”, accessed April 8, 2025. https://everywhenart.com.au/artists/265-michelle-lewis/biography/
2. Lewis, Michelle, "Artist Statement", provided by Everywhen Art, February 7, 2024