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Main Image 7222
Cat.No: #7222
hdivider
Kathleen Ngal
Bush Plum Country
2006
synthetic polymer on linen
199 x 120 cm
$13,000 AUD
Indicated prices are in Australian dollars including GST. Please note that prices are subject to change at the discretion of the gallery.
DETAIL

The conkerberry (or candleberry) known as anwekety or bushplum to Kathleen, is a sweet black berry that is favoured by desert Aboriginals. They only grow on the plant (Carissa lanceolata) for a few weeks of the year, however Kathleen's people collect plenty of them and store them dry, soaking them in water again before being consumed.

The plant of the conkerberry is a tangled, spiny shrub that can grow up to 2m high. After rain fragrant white flowers bloom. This pant also bares medicinal properties. The orange inner bark from the roots can be soaked in water and the resultant solutions can be used as medicinal wash. This is particularly favoured for skin and eye conditions. The thorns on the shrub can be used to cure warts.

Kathleen paints the conkerberry (dot work). In Anmatyerre the conkerberry is called anwekety. This fruit looks very similar to a plum and is often referred to in English by Kathleen as bush plum'. In the dreamtime, winds blew from all directions, carrying the anwekety seed over Kathleen's ancestors' land. The first anwekety of the Dreamings then grew, bore fruit and dropped more seeds. Many winds blew the seeds all over the Dreaming lands.