Anwekkety (Bush Plum), size 930 x 480 mm.

Dreaming:  In this painting, Belinda depicts the bush plum.  The conkerberry is known as anwekety or bush plum. The seeds of the conkerberry were dispersed over ancestral lands by the winds and bore fruit in the fertile ground of Utopia homelands. The first anwekety of the Dreaming grew there and became part of the food of the Anmatyerre people. The plant of the conkerberry is a tangled, spiny shrub (Carissa lanceolata) that grows up to 2 metres.. After rain, fragrant white flowers bloom followed by the sweet black berries which only grow for only a few weeks a year. Belinda's people collect and store them dry, soaking them in water again before being consumed.  The plant also has medicinal properties. The orange inner bark from the roots are soaked in water and the resultant solutions can be used as a medicinal wash mainly for skin and eye conditions.

Language/Country:  Anmatyerre/ Utopia, NT.  Born: 1986, Mulga Bore, Utopia.  Read artists bio.

Medium: Acrylic on linen.