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Bush Medicine Plants

“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by smashing the plants with a rock, we use the juice and the fibre of the plant.

We collect bush medicine plants when we are out hunting. Different kinds of plants grow during different seasons.

There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”

Bush medicine knowledge is still strong in Ampilatwatja, it continues to be passed down to the younger generations and is widely used.


When the women go hunting they often gather bush medicine. The plants depicted here are found in the country around Ampilatwatja, they are used for soothing skin infections and to make a drink to help with colds and coughs.


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

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220982216656

Bush Medicine Plants

“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by smashing the plants with a rock, we use the juice and the fibre of the plant.

We collect bush medicine plants when we are out hunting. Different kinds of plants grow during different seasons.

There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”

Bush medicine knowledge is still strong in Ampilatwatja, it continues to be passed down to the younger generations and is widely used.


When the women go hunting they often gather bush medicine. The plants depicted here are found in the country around Ampilatwatja, they are used for soothing skin infections and to make a drink to help with colds and coughs.


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

By , ago

110682262184

Bailinyin – Eileen Bray Joomena

The painting is of the country of Spring Vale Station, Bailinyin. Recently, in the wet season, Rusty traveled to this place with his grandchildren. There they were shown how to catch and kill a goanna, they learnt new Gija words, they learnt about Rusty’s life on this country – it is where he was born and where he worked as a young man. They leant about historical, complicated politics of the land and Rusty’s experience of it and relations to it. In the left hand corner, Rusty has painted red soils plains, the black area is the soil and the yellow ochre parts are the flat country. The grey is Warnidiwal creek. It is tributary of Bullock Hole, a popular rest spot for Rusty and his family and others who lived and worked on Springvale station.

I’ve been given this story to paint, Rusty gave it to me.

-Eileen Bray Joomena

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Birnoo Crocodile and Goanna Ngarrangarni

That’s an Alice Down Story, that’s Alice Down Hills, true story. That two hill on top of the hill again, and the thing like a flat, and that’s an old time, they call him Ngarrangarni (dreaming), that Country. And that crocodile and goanna, that two looking one another. That’s that hill, that’s their country. I bin go to that hill and have a look. I’ve seen that hill, that’s why I bin do that painting. And I bin do it the right way. Everytime, picnic time, we used to go there and he got that river come down. We used to go picnic there, looking for some really small fish. They used to get em with that netting, that spinifex, to catch them. That’s that place now.  

That two hill, that crocodile and goanna, they looking at one another. That crocodile want to take em off that goanna’s head, and put it on his head. That goanna bin say “No, I can’t give you my head. You gotta have your own head.” They been nearly swap each other, but that goanna bin say “No, I can’t give you, you gotta have your own head.” That’s all.

The hills Gordon talks about are in his ancestral country Birnoo, which is known as Alice Downs. The Ngarrangarni (dreaming) for those hills tells the story of a crocodile who wanted to swap heads with a goanna, who refused his request. 

Artist Eddie Daylight is Gordons’ oldest son.

Seems that my old man he is in old people place. Now it is my turn turn rebuild his story and painting for him. I am old son for him. I have to do it for my Father, stories and painting for him. When he is at the old people place in Kununarra.

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My Country and Bush Medicine Plants – Julieanne Ngwarraye Morton

“My Mother, Lilly Kemarre, taught me to paint. She likes to paint her Mother’s and Father’s country from the old days, when they used to live off of the land.”

Julieanne’s painting’s are inspired by her Mother’s stories of the old days, walking and living on their land, and also of her own experience of life out here in Alyawarr country.

“The landscape changes during the different seasons in the year. I paint the dried flowers and bushes from last season as well as the new plants that come after the rain. These plants have special meanings and uses for us. I have been taught how to read the country, and now I teach my children these skills.”

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Camp Site by Troy Drill

This is a camp site in Purnululu.(Bungle Bungles). In the cold weather The hill glows and the white part looks like a big giant door. When the sun is rising you see the hill sparkling, like broken glass.

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NUGUWARRDING (Snake Dreaming) – Tommy Carroll

This painting tells a story about NUGUWARRDING, that rainbow serpent, who travelled and lived around this area now called Doon Doon. Tommy says, “He went up to my grandfather’s country at the back of Speewah where there are gorges and rock holes.”

The solid circles represent the water holes in this area and the fluid lines are the hills around Doon Doon.

Tommy continues, “the story of this place was told to me when I was a young fella by my grandfather and his father. This snake was a father for this country, he traveled all over, sometimes he would stay for a few days then he would leave and pass through the next water place and stayed a bit longer.”

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Bush Flowers

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

These bush flowers grow seasonly in Alyawarr country, some of which are also used in bush medicine remedies.

“When I go out hunting, I like to see all the bush flowers that are flowering and then when I come back, I paint them.”

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My Country Antarrengeny – Lilly Morton Kemarre

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

Lilly has painted her country, Antarrengeny. The brightly coloured flowers and small bushes are bush medicine and are still used within the community.

Lilly’s landscapes beautifully communicate the rich knowledge she possesses of both medicinal plants and country, the heart of her culture.

As a young girl, Lilly lived traditionally off of the land with her family and Alyawarr people. In Lilly’s lifetime, she has experienced and borne witness to the irreversible changes of country and way of life, that were previously unchanged for thousands of years.
She is a kind and gentle elder of the community and often tells stories of how life used to be, in Alywarre, her language, to her family and friends. These stories are also a great inspiration for many of the artists within the community.

Lilly is passionate about nature, especially her country and the plants that grow on it, and though she has little English, she is keen to explain the various bush medicines which she depicts in her paintings.

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Ngaginyji Joomooloony- My Birth Tree by Eileen Bray

his painting is about Joomena’s Ngaginyji Joomooloony, her boab tree. “The boab tree we are born under becomes our special tree; this one is Ngaginyji Joomooloony, which means ‘My Boabtree'” 

 Eileen Bray Joomena was born on the side of a dusty highway along the road to Ord River and next to the creek that runs into Birnuwun (Alice Downs), Joomoon’s traditional country. The family had ventured out on a fishing trip when Eileen’s mum went into labour and was ‘laid down, with her sisters in law’, under a big boab tree and gave birth. The women stayed under the boab for a week, as is customary, and until ready to go back to camp.

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