Edward started painting when he was seven years old. “My grandfathers, Fred, Gerry and Donald would be painting or carving and we kids would sit around them and watch them grind the ochre’s and mix the colours, after a while he would tell us the story for that particular painting and also teach us the songs and dance for that story. When he was in a very good mood, he let us paint the sides of the bark painting, that was my start”. Eddie has progressed as a highly recognized contemporary artist. He has worked with the children of several schools and street children teaching them his painting skills and techniques. Edward Blitner is from Naiyalrindji and the community Ngukkurr on the Roper River, which is approximately 270 km Southeast of Katherine, N.T. It is now called the Yugul Mangl Community. Many good painters have emerged from that community and are represented in most major Australian galleries.

It has taken Eddy 16 years to learn to paint the stories and the Dreamings, passed on to him by his grandfather. Edward is also an accomplished woodcarver and didgeridoo maker. Some of Eddy’s bird carvings stand 2 meters high and are fully decorated and cross hatched. Other members of his clan (Barbil) taught him how to make flint spear heads, traditional hunting boomerangs and most important how to hunt, fish, find bush tucker and make bush medicine to survive.