Bush Plum, size 2000 x 1200 mm.

Dreaming:  The conkerberry is known as anwekety or bush plum. The seeds of the conkerberry were dispersed over ancestral lands by the winds and bore fruit in the fertile ground of Utopia homelands. The first anwekety of the Dreaming grew there and became part of the food of the Anmatyerre people. The plant of the conkerberry is a tangled, spiny shrub (Carissa lanceolata) that grows up to 2 metres.. After rain, fragrant white flowers bloom followed by the sweet black berries which only grow for only a few weeks a year. The women of Kathleen's country collect and store them dry, soaking them in water again before consuming.  The plant also has medicinal properties. The orange inner bark from the roots are soaked in water and the resultant solutions can be used as a medicinal wash mainly for skin and eye conditions.

Artist's Language/Country: Anmatyerre/Antnangkere NT.  Life:  c. 1940 – November, 2018.

 

Painted:  2/Code: PPFA2021-62.
Medium: Acrylic on Belgian linen. 
Photograph of Artist with completed work and Certificate of Authenticity.