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Bush Flowers – Nancy Pitjara Frank

I was born in the bush at Ammaroo Station, along the Sandover.  I have never seen the ocean or a big city. My mother and father were strong healthy people who taught me and my younger sister Rita the traditional way to hunt for Kangaroo, Goanna and Porcupine.  We know how to gather bush tucker (secrets of the earth) and bush medicine plants.  My mother used grinding stones to make seed damper.

When I paint I think about good memories, being a young girl and walking through the land.  My mother made paint from two stones and showed us ceremony painting and how to sing and dance for ceremonies.  I still sing and dance and collect the bush medicines, I like to make tea from the small purple flowers of Arreth (hill fuchsia).

Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.

My Grandmothers Country-Elizabeth Ngwarra Bonney

I still hunt my Grand Mothers country for goanna, bush medicine and yams.

I hunt all year round, hunting and walking through the country makes me happy.  When I look at the distant hills I can feel my grandmother.  Bush flowers are everywhere.

Painting my grandmother’s country reminds about those times.

My Grandmothers Country-Elizabeth Ngwarra Bonney

I still hunt my Grand Mothers country for goanna, bush medicine and yams.

I hunt all year round, hunting and walking through the country makes me happy.  When I look at the distant hills I can feel my grandmother.  Bush flowers are everywhere.

Painting my grandmother’s country reminds about those times.

My Hunting Country – Yvonne Ngwarraye Bonney

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

Yvonne has painted her favourite hunting country after rain. “This is when the storm ants come and make the goannas nice and fat, the ground is soft for digging honey ants and it’s when the bush foods and grasses come up and grow strong. The country is normally bare with small stones and rocks everywhere, but after rain, everything comes alive.”

Yvonne is a tremendous hunter, she is skilled in reading tracks and reading the land. Painting hunting country is important and special to her.

Antarrengeny – Edie Kemarre Holmes

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’ dreaming stories. The artists paint their country where those stories sit. Antarrengeny is Edie’s country and also her Father’s.

In this painting Edie depicts Antarrengeny, “when there has been no rain and the land shimmers like jewels. It is the open flat country, after a bushfire, when only the young grasses and the trees are growing and where there is good hunting.”

Edie has a strong connection to Antarrengeny. She gave birth to two of her daughters ‘out bush’ on this land. It is her country and she loves it dearly.