Emily was a senior custodian for Alhalkere country. Her paintings, through gestural brushstrokes, have an underlying theme that she describes in her own words as 'all that country it's whole lot, everything!' meaning that her paintings were not just a landscape, but also embodied the spiritual and conceptual aspects relating to her country's creation (also known as Dreaming).
The landscape aspects include actual landmarks, vegetation, wildlife and seasonal influences in her country. Spiritual aspects involve the ceremonies (or Awelye in Emily's native language, Anmatyerre) which are performed through singing, body paint and dance. Ancestral rights and obligations in which past, present and future simultaneously co-exist and law is passed from generation to generation, is introduced here. Ceremonies are an expression of a co-existence between Aboriginal people and the earth.
