Children of Earth.

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MINNIE PWERLE'S WORKS RESEMBLE MAPS. Her paintings record the mythical relationships that exist among the land's features as understood by Australia's aboriginal culture. For the initiated, her lovely colors and lines trace symbolic truths as well as engage the eye.

In the Awelye Atnwengerrp pictures, such as the one reproduced here, Pwerle replicates the patterns applied on women's bodies during their Awelye ceremonies, rituals celebrated only by women, in her homeland of Atnwengerrp.

Pwerle charts landscape differently from how I do it. I expect a map to locate me in terms of human interventions--a specific road to a particular town. For Pwerle the spiritual power of the land dwarfs human activity.

For those who believe the earth has been given to human beings to "possess" (Exodus 6:8), domination seems like a reasonable response. How would our behavior change if we learned instead that we have been given to the land?

By JERRY BLEEM, O.F.M., a priest and artist who teaches at Arizona State University. Image: Minnie Pwerle (ca. 1910-2006), Awelye Atnwengerrp, acrylic on canvas; 47.25 x 47.25 inches. Courtesy of Dreaming Art Centre of Utopia, Port Adelaide, Australia.