Amwekety (Bush Plum), 2001 by Gracie Pwerle (Purle) Morton, 122x61cm, Cat 6928GM

The first image is a detail close up. Please zoom in and then press the arrow to see the entire painting.

In this beautifully subtle work, painted in May 2001, Gracie depicts her Bush Plum ( Amwekety ) Dreaming, which is associated with her traditional country of Mosquito Bore some 263 kms north of Alice Springs.

Using an almost monochromatic style, Gracie’s delicate dotting depicts an aerial perspective of 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 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