In spring I can never get over the beauty of these purple, Mulla Mulla’s when they are in bloom along with the other yellow, pink and white flowers, and the yellow Blue Gum flower. It’s like a beautiful garden that you never have to water.
The Sturt Pea has a vibrant red flower. It has a succulent sweet juice that can be eaten.
Thama (fire) and jinda (charcoal): When you get the marruwa (snakewood) and make fire, you see it burning, burning, burning. After the fire burns the wood becomes black, jinda (charcoal). And then the ash comes. Marruwa is the best stick to burn because it burns so hot.This is fire burning with ashes after.
In her recent series of black and white works, Melissa is interested in exploring painting using only two colours on a textured surface. She says: “it’s a nice change from my big coloured paintings. I spend a lot of time thinking about the painting so I can get it right from the start. I like to start with a clear idea of what I want to do. If I don’t get it right, I won’t touch it until I know where I want it to go, and that might take days of looking and thinking. I have to have the vision of the painting clearly in my mind. When the experiment has gone right, I love it. Knowing that the buyer will love it and cherish it makes it worthwhile; to make someone else happy.
In Yindjibarndi Country there were two men that have been initiated through the Lore. They walked around the Country til they found a pretty bird – the 28 parrot – killed and ate it because it was a secret bird. Then a big wind came. It was a rainbow serpent coming for them in a vicious way, cutting through the land, creating rivers and pools along the way. As soon as the serpant for them, they were swallowed through his anus and brought back out as two cockatoos…!
When the tide goes out it leaves all the weeds among the rockholes mixed with all the colourful coral from the ocean.
Springtime is a beautiful blending of colours in our Country. After the rain all the wild flowers come up in a pattern like a puzzle. The artist, Melissa, often sponges her background using colours which include Red, Pink, Yellows and Orange. She painted over this background with her own unique style and bright colours. As in much Aborigional art the artist has represented her country from an aerial perspective.
When we see sea turtles it can mean that they can be mating and that makes us aware that they will soon be going to lay eggs. Some of our people eat the eggs and turtles.
Honey ants are shown here collecting food before winter. Bunjima people call the food ‘mulma nujnu’. This name comes from the leaves, and another name is ‘ngardanu’, which comes from the branches.
We have many fallen seeds from our plants that give new growth to our wild flowers.