Bush Berry, 1985

synthetic polymer paint on canvas

40 x 40cm

$350

Provenance: Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Artwork story: The conkerberry (or candleberry) known as anwekety or bushplum 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 the women 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 plant 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. The artist paints the conkerberry. This fruit looks very similar to a plum and is often referred to as bush plum'. In the dreamtime, winds blew from all directions, carrying the anwekety seed over the artists 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.

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synthetic polymer paint on canvas

40 x 40cm

$350

Provenance: Cooee Aboriginal Art Gallery, NSW
Artwork story: The conkerberry (or candleberry) known as anwekety or bushplum 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 the women 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 plant 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. The artist paints the conkerberry. This fruit looks very similar to a plum and is often referred to as bush plum'. In the dreamtime, winds blew from all directions, carrying the anwekety seed over the artists 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.