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Catalogue Number: 25/76
This painting tells a story of Aboriginal women working together to gather bush tomatoes, a traditional food found on Country after the rains. The curved lines in the artwork represent the women sitting on the ground.
After a big rain, Aboriginal women from remote communities in Central Australia go out into the bush to look for the bush tomato plant, it has green leaves and small purple flowers. Soon, green fruits begin to grow. When these fruits turn yellow, they are ready to eat. If the fruit is left on the plant it turns brown and dries in the sun, this is still good to eat as a dried fruit.
How to find bush food is passed down from mothers, aunties, and grandmothers to daughters and nieces. Aboriginal women know where the plants grow and through stories, time on Country, and shared experience, knowledge is handed down—one generation teaching the next.