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Free postage within Australia
Catalogue: 24/293 Acrylic on Canvas
This painting tells the story of bush tomatoes growing wild on Country in Central Australia. The two main plants in the artwork show the different stages of the fruit. One plant has ripe yellow bush tomatoes, which are ready to eat. The other has brown, sun-dried fruits. These dried bush tomatoes are still good to eat and are often collected and stored for later.
You can also see curved shapes, these represent Aboriginal women sitting on the ground. Each woman has a digging stick and a coolamon beside her. A coolamon is a traditional wooden bowl used in the old days to carry bush tucker like fruit and seeds.
Bush tomatoes appear after heavy rain. First, the plant grows tiny purple flowers. Then, green fruit begins to form. The hot sun turns the fruit yellow and ripe. This is when Aboriginal women from remote communities go out into the bush to harvest the tomatoes. They pass down this knowledge from mother to daughter, teaching the best places to find bush tucker and the right time to pick it.