Audrey Martin Napanangka

West North of Yuendumu, Mt Theo outstation. 18/12/2006 Audrey has painted a “bush tucker” map of her country in the Warlpiri tribal area, north west of Alice Springs. Yuendumu is the key township in this region and Audrey’s people are from the Mount Theo outstation about 80km further north west. Her country abounds in bush tucker and various plants fruit at various times of the year. The women travel out into the country for ceremony, painting up their bodies and singing and dancing to honour the ancestral creation beings and to ensure that the next season brings an abundance of bush tucker. In this painting, Audrey shows some of these plants – at the right is bush tomato (akijiri), on the left is bush coconut and wild bush sweet potato spreads out from the centre. Women can be seen in various places as the U shapes collecting the bush foods in their coolamons (wooden bowls) and using their digging sticks – the linear elements. Her interesting use of a dot upon a dot provides a 3-dimensionality often seen in her work.