Yarla-Bush Potato, 2002

synthetic polymer paint on linen

38 x 84 cm

$1,250

Provenance: Katherine Art Gallery, Katherine, NT Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, October 2005 Butcher Shop Cafe, Mudgee, NSW, 2005
Artwork story: This painting tells the Dreamtime story of women of the Napurrula and Nakamarra skin groups who are searching the countryside for bush potatoes. Bush potatoes grow as roots underground, so the women must use the digging sticks to find them. The crossed lines represent a map of the country linking important sites . The lines represent the complex root system and branches of the bush potato plant. The circles at the centre of each plant is where the women dig to retrieve bush potatoes. The flowered icons represent the plant in flower. Bush potatoes are a very valuable food source as well as a major totemic item that the artist identifies with in ceremony and daily life. Songs that recount the journeys of the Bush potato Ancestors are central to women’s ceremonial performances. The artist is a senior custodian for this dreaming which took place at Duck Ponds in the Northern territory Australia.

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c.1924–1925 – 2006

synthetic polymer paint on linen

38 x 84 cm

$1,250

Provenance: Katherine Art Gallery, Katherine, NT Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Exhibited: Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT, October 2005 Butcher Shop Cafe, Mudgee, NSW, 2005
Artwork story: This painting tells the Dreamtime story of women of the Napurrula and Nakamarra skin groups who are searching the countryside for bush potatoes. Bush potatoes grow as roots underground, so the women must use the digging sticks to find them. The crossed lines represent a map of the country linking important sites . The lines represent the complex root system and branches of the bush potato plant. The circles at the centre of each plant is where the women dig to retrieve bush potatoes. The flowered icons represent the plant in flower. Bush potatoes are a very valuable food source as well as a major totemic item that the artist identifies with in ceremony and daily life. Songs that recount the journeys of the Bush potato Ancestors are central to women’s ceremonial performances. The artist is a senior custodian for this dreaming which took place at Duck Ponds in the Northern territory Australia.