Barbara Tilmouth - Women collecting bush tomatoes

Catalogue Number: 25/158

This painting tells a story of Aboriginal women working together to gather bush tomatoes, a traditional food found on Country after the rains.

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.

The curved lines in the artwork represent the women sitting on the ground. They are collecting the yellow ripe tomatoes and the brown sundried tomatoes, both are good to eat.

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.