KATHLEEN NGAL - FLOWERS IN BUSH PLUM COUNTRY

 KATHLEEN NGAL
FLOWERS IN BUSH PLUM COUNTRY,  2004
120 x 93 cm
Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
 
PROVENANCE
Urapuntja, NT
Urapantja Artists Utopia, NTPrivate Collection, USACooee Art, NSW 
 
STORY
The conkerberry known as anwekety or bush plum, is a sweet black berry that is favoured by desert Aboriginals. They grow on the plant (Carissa lanceolata) for only a few weeks of each year. They are collect in plenty and stored dry, until soaked in water 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 plant also has medicinal properties. The orange inner bark from the roots can be soaked in water and the resultant solutions can be used as a medicinal wash. This is particularly favoured for skin and eye conditions. The thorns on the shrub can be used to cure warts.In Dreamtime, winds blew from all directions, carrying the anwekety seed over Kathleen's ancestors' land.