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Published by CompNet Systems on

Bush Medicine

Traditional Martu knowledge of plant properties was encyclopedic, and saw plants used for purposes as diverse as food resources, carving implements, tobacco, firewood, shelter construction, and bush medicines. Depicted in this work are types of bush medicines, their habitats, and the processes used in their preparation. 

Physical ailments treated with plant based poltices, body washes, drinks, rubs and pastes included fever, congestion, headache, skin sores, aching limbs, and digestive problems. More serious health issues were often treated with a combination of bush medicine and maparn (magic healing/ healer).

Plants still prepared to make bush medicines today include warlji (desert bloodwood), kalpari (Dysphania Kalpari) and nayju (green crumbweed), which can be soaked in a water solution to make a skin wash. One of the most popular types of bush medicine still used today is wanta (red sap), collected from the mijarrpa (bloodwood) tree and brewed as a tea to ease heart pains and other body aches.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Valdera Morgan

Language: Manjilyajarra

Community: Wiluna

Biography:

"I was born and raised in Wiluna. I went to the old school there. I was taught to paint by my grandmother, father, and my mother, Beverly Wilson. 

They painted their home, country. Ngurra. My mother painted bush tucker; like lunkis, wamala, kalkula. I like to paint seven sisters. I like painting that story becuase its' a lot of stories across the country.

I moved to Newman last year, I also like to paint in the gallery in Wiluna. Sometimes I paint my grandfather's land, where the old people walk around. I like to paint bush medicine too."

- Valdera Morgan, 2025

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