"Bush Plum Dreaming" by Belinda Golder Kngwarreye

Size: 120 x 90cm

Acrylic on Canvas

Belinda Golder Kngwarreye is an Anmatyerre artist from the Utopia Homelands of Central Australia. She was born in 1986 and her clan country is at Mulga Bore. Belinda has strong artistic connections within her family – her grandmother is leading Utopia artist Polly Ngale, and her mother Bessie Purvis Petyarre, and sister Janet Golder are also accomplished, artists. Artists Kathleen Ngale and Angelina Ngale are her great aunts.

Belinda paints the Bush Plum Dreaming story that she inherits from her grandmother Polly Ngale. Her technique is to render the many colors of the bush plum plant as the fruits ripen.

About the painting

Belinda’s paintings are borne from traditional knowledge and her confident approach to painting is evident in the way she assembles the images of the bush seeds, piling dots over each other to create a dense surface using a rich palette of colours. Belinda’s subject matter is drawn from acute observation and memory. There is an intimate knowledge of the country, blended with personal history and ancestral journey.

Belinda has painted a Women’s Dreaming story, combining her country with the bush tucker and waterholes that are imperative when the women go out bush for ceremony which can take up to a week. The women conduct important ceremonies at these sites, including that of the Desert Yam (or Bush Plum) story from her family’s country.

The yam grows underground with its viny shrub growing above ground up to one meter high. It is normally found on Spinifex sand plains and produces large flowers after a summer rain. The yam is a tuber, or swollen root, of the shrub and tastes much like the common sweet potato. It can be eaten raw or cooked and is still a staple food for the desert aborigines where it can be harvested at any time of the year. It is also renowned for its medicinal properties. This medicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites, and rashes and as an insect repellent.