Amwekety (Bush Plum), 2001 by Gracie Pwerle (Purle) Morton 152x92cm Cat 6558GM

The first image is a detail. Please zoom in and press the arrow to see more images and an overall image of the painting.

In this beautifully subtle work, 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 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 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