BUSH MEDICINE COUNTRY: PLANTS OF VITALITY by Everywhen Artspace |McCulloch & McCulloch

BUSH MEDICINE COUNTRY Plants of Vitality

Carers

C o u n t ry

BUSH MEDICINE COUNTRY Plants of Vitality Carers

C o u n t ry

EXHIBITINGARTISTS

Abie Loy Kemarre Belinda Golder Kngwarreye Bernadine Johnson Kemarre Jeannie Mills Pwerle

Left clockwise from top: The lands of bush medicine, Central Australia: some of the many plants used in traditional medicine and/or vitamin-rich food sources â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Kangaroo Apple; Native Lemon Grass; Kakadu Plum; Honey Grevillea; Gumbi Gumbi.

introduction

The traditional Aboriginal diet is noted as one of the healthiest in the world. Australia’s Indigenous peoples have a long history of using the leaves, stems, roots, barks and leaves of plants indigenous to their regions for use in both traditional medicines as well as sources of nutritious food. Today many wild foods including Kakadu plum, macadamia nut, quandong, finger lime, warrigal greens and a number of others are produced commercially. The seeds of grasses were ground to make a variety of flours; leaves, nectar-bearing flowers and barks steeped in water to make vitamin rich cordials or potions to treat a wide variety of ailments; vines used as tourniquets and slings; leaves with antiseptic properties used to heal wounds and numerous fresh fruits and vegetables including berries, citrus fruits, melons, wild apples, tubers such as yams along with many other varieties of fruits and vegetables can be eaten fresh or dried. Wild honey (sugarbag) is gathered from hives of native bees in tree branches and trunks throughout Australia. In Central Australia’s 1800-square-kilometre Utopia region some 230km north-east of Alice Springs, the area’s Anmatyerre and Alyawerre people have never been removed from their lands and so have extensive knowledge of the rich bounty of foods their lands provided. While many of these plants have been severely impacted or died out due to the impact of colonization and the introduction of cattle, horses and other animals as well as the spread of destructive and invasive vegetation such as the ubiquitous buffle grass, a number still survive and are keenly sought after for their medicinal and health-giving properties. Since contemporary art-making started at Utopia in the mid 1970s with the making of silk batiks which subsequently evolved into painting, the region’s women artist have been featuring bush medicine plants in their art. Artistic depictions are multi-dimensional – paying homage to the Dreaming stories of the country and plants as they enable artists to develop their own distinctive styles while simultaneously being valuable teaching tools for subsequent generations to learn of their lands and its histories. The majority of Utopia’s approximately 250 practising artists are women, and many interpret their country’s traditional flora.

The four well known artists from Utopia in this exhibition have each developed their own distinctive style. Abie Loy Kemarre, granddaughter of the late famous artist Kathleen Petyarre depicts the special leaf which grows in her grandfather’s country and which is known for its wonderful curative properties. Loy pays homage to both this leaf, and its Dreaming story in which it transforms to ancestral creation woman and back again. Her fluid and detailed depictions have led to her work becoming widely exhibited and collected. Younger artist Belinda Golder Kngwarreye similarly comes from a long and illustrious line of famous painters which has included her grandmother, Polly Ngale, and great aunts Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her lush depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Golder is following in their footsteps as well as those of the highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye and Kudditji Kngwarreye. With their patterned detail and highly effective use of complementary colours depicting the leaves used for bush medicine, Bernadine Johnson Kemarre’s paintings have carved out a unique place in the art of the region, while traditional healer Jeannie Mills Pwerle is one of Utopia’s most well-known contemporary artists. Mills’ distinctive Yam Dreamings paintings in which she uses a number of colours in the same brushstroke relate the story of the bush potato/yam that grows underground with its vine/shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. Normally found on spinifex sand plains, this plant produces large pink flowers after summer rain and its tuber, or swollen root, which tastes much like the common sweet potato, can be harvested at any time of the year and remains a staple food for many Aboriginal people of Central Australia.

Susan McCulloch and Emily McCulloch Childs April 2020

Abie Loy Kemarre

Abie Loy Kemarre, born c 1972, is an Eastern Anmatyerre speaker from Mosquito Bore country, Utopia, NT, about 230km north-east of Alice Springs. She comes from a family of artists: her grandmother was the well-known artist Kathleen Petyarre. Her subjects include her Dreaming ancestor, the female Bush Turkey and the subject of this painting, the special leaf which grows in her grandfather’s country. Known for its wonderful curative properties, this leaf is closely associated with women, both for their use of its medicinal properties and their rights to paint its Dreaming story which includes the leaf’s transformation from plant form to that of an ancestral creation woman and back again. It is said that this much-coveted leaf is very shy and that when people touch its leaves or pick it, it withers under the touch - yet magically regenerates and comes back to life.1

Abie Loy’s softly curved and detailed paintings, such as this glowing purple-hued work, have become highly sought after for their intricacy of patternation, in which the leaves seem to fold in and over one another with a seamless fluidity. Loy’s work is held in the collections of a number of significant private and public gallery collections including the Art Gallery of South Australia; Festival of Arts Foundation Collection, SA; Adelaide University Art Collection, SA; The Levi-Kaplan Collection, Seattle, USA; The Kelton Foundation, Los Angeles, USA; The Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Commission Collection; National Gallery of Victoria; Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth. 1 Christine Nicholls, A new star rises in Utopia, Australian Art Review no. 4 (March-June 2004), p. 24-25.)

1. Abie Loy Kemarre Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 115 x 60cm MM4725 | $1300

Abie Loy Kemarre 2. Abie Loy Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 90 x 90cm MM4584 | $1900

Abie Loy Kemarre 3. Abie Loy Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2018, acrylic on linen, 118 x 90cm MM4336 | $2200

Abie Loy Kemarre 4. Abie Loy Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2018, acrylic on linen, 115 x 85 cm MM3434 | $1900

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this beautifully detailed painting Belinda documents some of the numerous grasses, flowers and fruits and the places in which they grow across her Utopia lands. Featured is the green foliage which bursts into colour and life after the rains â&#x20AC;&#x201C; preluding the season of renewal and growth in these often arid lands.

5. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye Plants of My Country 2020, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 87cm MM 4873 | $2900

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this work Belinda has depicted the changing colours of the bush plum as the fruits ripen. The bush plum or anwekety only fruits for a few weeks of the year. It can be eaten fresh or dried for use later and is an important source of Vitamin C for Utopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anmatyerre people. According to Anmatyerre belief, in the Dreaming, bush plum seeds were blown over the ancestral countries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; landing to seed itself and bear fruit on Utopia lands.

6. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye Bush Plum 2019, acrylic on canvas 152 x 91 cm MM4672 | $2,500

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this work Belinda has depicted the changing colours of the bush plum as the fruits ripen. The bush plum or anwekety only fruits for a few weeks of the year. It can be eaten fresh or dried for use later and is an important source of Vitamin C for Utopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anmatyerre people. According to Anmetyerre belief, in the Dreaming, bush plum seeds were blown over the ancestral countries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; landing to seed itself and bear fruit on Utopia lands.

7. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye, Bush Plum 2019 acrylic on canvas, 122 x 91cm MM4636 | $2200

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this work Belinda has depicted the changing colours of the bush plum as the fruits ripen. The bush plum or anwekety only fruits for a few weeks of the year. It can be eaten fresh or dried for use later and is an important source of Vitamin C for Utopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anmatyerre people. According to Anmetyerre belief, in the Dreaming, bush plum seeds were blown over the ancestral countries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; landing to seed itself and bear fruit on Utopia lands.

8. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye Bush Plum 2019, acrylic on canvas, 198 x 87 cm MM4486 | $2900

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this work Belinda has depicted the changing colours of the bush plum as the fruits ripen. The bush plum or anwekety only fruits for a few weeks of the year. It can be eaten fresh or dried for use later and is an important source of Vitamin C for Utopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anmatyerre people. According to Anmetyerre belief, in the Dreaming, bush plum seeds were blown over the ancestral countries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; landing to seed itself and bear fruit on Utopia lands.

9. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye Bush Plum 2019, acrylic on canvas, 199 x 106 cm MM4483 | $3,400

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye was born in 1986 and is an Anmatyerre speaker from the Utopia region of Central Australia, situated approximately 250km north-east of Alice Springs. Belinda comes from a long line of significant and well-established artists. She is the daughter of Bessie Petyarre; her sister is Janet Golder Kngwarreye and both artists are the grandaughters of Polly Ngale. Her great aunts are artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale. In her depictions of bush plum and the plants of her country, Belinda is following in the footsteps of these, and other highly regarded artists of the Kngwarreye family, especially Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and Kudditji Kngwarreye. In this work Belinda has depicted the changing colours of the bush plum as the fruits ripen. The bush plum or anwekety only fruits for a few weeks of the year. It can be eaten fresh or dried for use later and is an important source of Vitamin C for Utopiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Anmatyerre people. According to Anmetyerre belief, in the Dreaming, bush plum seeds were blown over the ancestral countries â&#x20AC;&#x201C; landing to seed itself and bear fruit on Utopia lands.

10. Belinda Golder Kngwarreye, Bush Plum 2019, acrylic on linen, 152 x 91cm MM4635 | $2900

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre was born c1974 in Santa Teresa, east of Alice Springs, NT and moved to the Utopia region on her marriage to Stephen, brother of well-known Utopia artist Anna Price Pitjara. Bernadineâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s paintings are all on the subject of bush medicine and tell the story of bush seeds and leaves that were used traditionally for both bush medicine and bush tucker. This practice was used long before western medicine was introduced. Her work is distinguished for its fine attention to detail, dynamic movement and a beautiful sense of complementary colours.

11. Bernadine Johnson Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 113 x 92 cm MM4794 | $2300

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

12. Bernadine Johnson Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 113 x 92 cm MM4793 | $2300

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

13. Bernadine Johnson Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 118 x 93 cm MM4729 | $2300

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

14. Bernadine Johnson Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2019, acrylic on linen, 150 x 90 cm MM4728 | $3200

Bernadine Johnson Kemarre

15. Bernadine Johnson Kemarre, Bush Medicine Leaves 2018, acrylic on linen, 95 x 90 cm MM3335. | $1900

Jeannie Mills Pwerle 16. Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Yam Dreaming 2020, acrylic on linen, 113 x 92 cm MM4890 | $2,300

Jeannie Mills Pwerle, born in 1965, is a highly respected artist from Utopia, about 230km north east of Alice Springs. Here she lives a traditional life at her homelands of Irrwelty and Atnwengerrp. With fellow artist and senior elder Lena Pwerle, she is heavily involved in educating and encouraging other women to participate in painting, exhibitions and culture. Mills is also a ngangker (traditional healer or doctor) providing advice, bush medicines and applications to people of her community. Artistically, she has become well-recognised for her highly popular, unique interpretations of Anaty (desert yam or bush potato) Dreaming story. Mills’ late aunt was Emily Kame Kngwarreye Australia’s most prized female artist. Kngwarreye had as her principal Dreaming, the anwerlarr (pencil yam, Vigna lanceolata sp.), which was associated with her birthplace, Alhalker. Likewise, Mills’s enduring subject matter is her Dreaming of Anaty (Bush Potato/Yam pronounced ‘ung-kiy-yah’, Ipomoea costata) story from her father’s country, Irrweltye. 38

This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert Aboriginal people, where it can be harvested at any time of the year. Some can be found as big as a person’s head. Mill’s contemporary interpretation depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty and its flower (brush work). Her work has been exhibited around Australia since 2004, and in 2008 she was a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Mills has continued to develop as an artist, particularly over the past year, we have noticed her paintings become increasingly fine, and even more exceptionally beautiful than ever. Her skill with the brush in combining a palette of bushflower colours: pinks, purples, yellows and blues has developed, as seen in this pastel beauty of a work here.

Jeannie Mills Pwerle 17. Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Yam Dreaming 2020, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 76cm MM4872 | $1300

This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert Aboriginal people, where it can be harvested at any time of the year. Some can be found as big as a person’s head. Mill’s contemporary interpretation depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty and its flower (brush work). Her work has been exhibited around Australia since 2004, and in 2008 she was a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Mills has continued to develop as an artist, particularly over the past year, we have noticed her paintings become increasingly fine, and even more exceptionally beautiful than ever. Her skill with the brush in combining a palette of bushflower colours is evident in this work with its variety of blue hues.

Jeannie Mills Pwerle 18. Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Yam Dreaming 2020, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 71cm MM4871 | $990

This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert Aboriginal people, where it can be harvested at any time of the year. Some can be found as big as a person’s head. Mill’s contemporary interpretation depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty and its flower (brush work). Her work has been exhibited around Australia since 2004, and in 2008 she was a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Mills has continued to develop as an artist, particularly over the past year, we have noticed her paintings become increasingly fine, and even more exceptionally beautiful than ever. Her skill with the brush in combining a palette of bushflower colours is evident as she reflects the green winter palette of her land around her in this work.

Jeannie Mills Pwerle 19. Jeannie Mills Pwerle, Yam Dreaming 2020, acrylic on canvas, 122 x 91cm MM4867 | $2,400

This yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one metre high. It is normally found on spinifex sand plains and produces large pink flowers after summer rain. The anaty is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert Aboriginal people, where it can be harvested at any time of the year. Some can be found as big as a person’s head. Mill’s contemporary interpretation depicts the seed of the anaty (dot work), the anaty and its flower (brush work). Her work has been exhibited around Australia since 2004, and in 2008 she was a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award. Mills has continued to develop as an artist, particularly over the past year, we have noticed her paintings become increasingly fine, and even more exceptionally beautiful than ever. Her skill with the brush in combining a palette of bushflower colours is evident as she reflects the green and warm coloured winter palette of her land around her in this work.

EVERYWHEN Artspace specialises in contemporary Australian Aboriginal art featuring paintings, barks, ochres, ceramics, sculptures and works on paper from 40 + Aboriginal art centres from around Australia. Directors Susan McCulloch OAM and Emily McCulloch Childs.

EVERYWHEN Artspace 39 Cook Street, Flinders VIC 3929 T: +61 3 5989 0496 E: info@mccullochandmcculloch.com.au mccullochandmcculloch.com.au