Amwekety (Bush Plum), 2001 by Gracie Pwerle Morton, 61x61cm Cat 6948GM

The first image is a close up whereas the overall painting image follows by pressing the arrow.

Using an aerial perspective Gracie’s delicate dotting and colour variation depicts the surrounding landscape during summer months when seeds from the Bush Plum are split open and the husks are strewn over the ground.

The Bush Plum ( Amwekety ) Dreaming is associated with her traditional country of Mosquito Bore some 263 kms north of Alice Springs.

It 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.

Gracie is one of the senior traditional custodians for both the Altyerre (Dreaming) and the vast expanse of related country. In accordance to traditional law the responsibility for the Bush Plum Dreaming has been passed down to Gracie from her father and her aunt, who are responsible for ensuring that she preserves its traditions.

'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