Provenance: Commissioned by the Chalmers family, 1996 working photographs- Gallery Gabrielle Pizzi, Melbourne - Private Collection, USA - Sotherby’s Important Aboriginal Art, 2007 - Private Collection, NSW.

Story: These abandoned gestural strokes are energetic, focusing on the fertile anticipation of a good season of bush tucker in the desert. The composition of line and colour is very peaceful, with the palette representing the colours of ripening fruits and flowers. This flower Kame changes in colour with the age of the plant, the constituents of the soil and the season.

Awelye the ceremonial expression, releases the spiritual power that nurtures fertility and hardiness. The belief that good seasons always return, that the yam ‘always comes back’, is fundamental to understanding the desert environment, and therefore survival.

A parallel layer of expression runs with the fundamental understanding of awelye that being of basic human nature, understanding it, and abiding by the rules set down by society in order that it too, will survive. ‘the emu he likes that kame a little bit, that’s all. The flower is mainly white,sometimes a little bit yellow,pink too. That’s right,it changes colour a bit”

It is clear that Emily was a strong holder of the law and a personification of the Altyerre (identity) for the Yam. She is informing us about the country,exploring mental images of a spectacular harvest and sharing with us something of herself -kame ,yam seed and flower.