Amwekety 2003 by Gracie Pwerle (Purle) Morton, 91X91cm Cat 7289GM

In this joyous multi-layered painting, the artist is showing us the abundance of bush plums after a good season of rain. It is full of promise and shows the country from an aerial perspective.

The Bush Plum is a prostrate plant, which grows in a great profusion of colour after the fall of rain but very quickly disintegrates after long hot summer months. It is a small fruit with black seeds that can be eaten raw or cooked to make bush damper and has an extremely high vitamin C content.

The Bush Plum Dreaming site is one of the major Dreamings of the Utopia region. Throughout this painting there is a profusion of the dry seeds of the native bush plum ( canthium latifolium ) a fruit which proliferates in that area.

The 'bush plum' which is in fact a native currant, grows on a tall, straight, thin broad-leaved, lightish- coloured tree, and is initially green, than gradually turns black as it ripens. These fruit grow in small black clusters.

The intersecting lines represent the 'ritual activities of women who are singing, dancing and painting women's body designs ( awelye ) on their limbs.

These are characteristically applied, in ceremonial contexts, to the breasts, upper back, shoulders and thighs, in parallel horizontal and vertical lines and streaks'.

Source: Dr Christine Nicholls

NEEDS PHOTO - RETURNING FROM FIJI