Travelling Between Worlds

With one foot planted in the South Australian capital, she leaves the other firmly rooted in Atnwengerrp, an area of the Utopia region in the Northern Territory, 270km northeast of Alice Springs. While Jade’s artwork conveys her spiritual links to the land and ocean, her Yamaha GP1800 SVHO WaveRunner also celebrates this connection, which she uses to charge and release artistic inspiration.

Jade’s life provides a portal to travel between the two worlds, which inspires her work.

While her legal name is Jade Torres, throughout the international art world, Jade is recognised by her skin name, Akamarre. Jade explains, “This is a cultural name given to me at birth in our Aboriginal kinship system. A skin name is more than just an ID; it’s a connection to our roots and family. Think of it as a combination of my parents’ skin names or sometimes given by the community – a bit like a family lineage name.”

Jade hails from the Alyawarre/Anmatyerre people and draws artistic inspiration from her rich family history, including her grandmother, the late Barbara Weir, and great-grandmother, the late Minnie Pwerle, both internationally recognised artists. Her father, Fred Torres, established Australia’s first Aboriginal-owned art gallery, DACOU (Dreaming Art Centre Of Utopia), in 1993.

While Jade is deeply connected to the guidance and inspiration provided by her family, she is also a pioneer, embarking on her own artistic journey, a vibrant tapestry of traditional and modern, corporate and creative, land and sea.

Drawing on family influences to carve out her unique style of contemporary Indigenous artwork that reflects her own dreamtime story and heritage, Jade says that art to her is family. “My art is my story, my heritage,” she explains. “It’s a major way that I identify myself, and it’s a part of my everyday, my well-being, my purpose.”

In addition to running her Pwerle Gallery in Adelaide, Jade also has the pleasure of looking after four generations of her family; all still painting and contributing artwork to the gallery. “Community and my family are the number one drive of the business, the art is just a beautiful bonus,” she explains.

Despite living a very corporate and business-structured life in Adelaide, Jade’s regular trips to the Utopia region to hold art workshops with her family provide the more relaxing and stress-free life she craves while away. “Painting for me is my safe ground, my peace zone. It brings me back to my people, it brings me back to my culture, and it reminds me why I got into this industry, to begin with,” Jade explains. “I come out here at least once a month to do workshops, and sometimes I just come out to recharge. It’s a place that not many people can really understand just how beautiful and recharging it is.”

Jade’s paintings, the process of creating them, and what they represent are an essential aspect of her identity and a connection with her heritage. However, there is also a touch of twenty-first-century technology in Jade’s processes, a Yamaha GP1800 WaveRunner, which also plays a role in the creative development of her artwork. The freedom and connection with the environment delivered by her GP1800 WaveRunner led Jade to seek a collaboration with Yamaha Motor Australia to combine her Dreamtime story with Yamaha’s technology. The result is a Yamaha GP19 HO WaveRunner wrapped in stunning artwork hand-painted by Jade during the filming of Travelling Between Worlds.

“One of the questions I most get asked is, what is a dreaming?” Jade reveals. “Dreaming is something that Aboriginal people, like my family, hold close to their hearts. These are sacred narratives, passed down through generations, revealing vital knowledge, cultural values, and traditions. We share these stories through ceremonial body painting, storytelling, as well as song and dance.”

“My dreaming is called Atnwengerrp (pronounced A-NOONG-a-pa) my grandmother’s country; it’s something that she passed down to me. Travelling out to her country, it gives me a sense of drive and inspiration to tell my story through my art. It’s what I paint about; it's what I have learned.”

Exclusively commissioned by Yamaha Motor Australia, Jade’s artwork fuses her culture and dreaming with the power, heritage, and innovation of Yamaha Motor. The stunning piece features the unmistakable ochre colours of outback Australia, highlighted with Yamaha’s corporate colours of red and blue, underscoring its support for First Nations people and their rich cultural heritage.

Jade explains that the artwork’s design calls on the inspiration she receives when spending time on the ocean riding her WaveRunner, as well as time spent in her grandmother’s country, growing up riding motorbikes in the outback, and being at home with family. “I have drawn the colours together to create the artwork in a way where they are not divided but coexist,” she says. “I think having that crossover and having those two worlds meet are my two happy places.”

Jade’s WaveRunner journey began when her two best friends introduced her to the thrill of the ride. “I remember riding a WaveRunner for the first time; I jumped on the back, and I loved it, but I’m also a control freak, so I could not handle being unable to control it on my own. By the end of that first ride, I had already made up my mind that I wanted one of my own.”

For almost two years now, Jade has owned her own Yamaha GP1800 and used her time connecting with the ocean to recharge her creative energy, channeling it back into her work. “Any time the water is flat, I’m out there. Everything is dropped, including the paintbrushes, and I’m out on the water,” she reveals. “The water is a source of inspiration for my art. Being out on the water inspires me a lot. When I turn off the motor, and I’m just sitting silently on the ocean, it delivers a sense of peace. I use that as part of my creative drive, and it’s something I know is working for me and my art.”

Continuing to showcase her art around the world is Jade’s dream. “We really want people to love the culture as much as we do and realise it’s a very simple and beautiful culture with really strong family morals.”

Despite being a driven and ambitious businesswoman, Jade is grounded in the present. “I find it hard to plan creatively too far into the future. Our culture and the age of our ancestors mean we don’t have much time, so our time is precious. Planning for the now is more important for me.”

Jade Akamarre’s passion for her art and the Travelling Between Worlds United By Yamaha short film align with Yamaha Motor’s Sustainability Development Goals (SDGs) of Gender Equality and Reduced Inequalities, as well as Rethinking Solutions, which is a component of Yamaha Motor’s Long-Term Vision, ART for Human Possibilities.

To follow Jade's adventures or learn more about her country and culture follow her channels via Jade Akamarre and Pwerle Gallery on Instagram or head over to the Pwerle Gallery website.