Dennis Nona

Myrta is a wild plant and looks a bit like Basil. It is used when the season changes to Kuki [North-West Monsoon time]. Myrta is picked and kept in dry places before the onset of Kuki, which brings a lot of ‘iwi’ [mosquitoes] and ‘dingarr’ [sandflies]. Myrta is slowly burnt and glows like a small coal, which provides a lot of smoke which drives away the insects. In this image the mossies are depicted as coming down from above, but then turning away because of the Myrta.