#233 Bush Medicine Leaves & Seeds (multi) - SABINA GOREY Aboriginal Art: 86cm x 127cm

Title:  Bush Medicine Leaves & Seeds

Region:  Napperby Station Ti-Tree, NE Alice Springs, NT

Language : Anmatyerre

Born:  1981

Medium:  Acrylic on Canvas

Biography:

Sabina Gorey Nungala is a self-taught Artist who comes from a strong family tradition of the North Eastern Anmatyerre painters.  Sabina's most popular painting illustrates Women's Ceremony, Bush Bananas and Bush Medicine Leaves.  Sabina grew up surrounded by habitual routine of painting and began painting herself as a teenager.  Aboriginal Women have their own Ceremonies in which a series of song and dance cycles tell of the Ancestral beings who walked the earth teaching Women's Law and Ceremony to isolated groups living throughout the desert.  East tribe has its own set of Women Ancestors with different stories, designs and dances but most of them have one common theme to all groups, food gathering, as it is the most important part of their lives.  The song and dance mainly revolve around bush tucker, such as bush banana, wild tomatoes, plums, honey ants, witchetty grubs, nuts and berries.  In their paintings they depict the implements they use including digging sticks, grinding stones and coolamons.  A U shape represents a person or group of people sitting down with crossed legs.  The concentric circles are waterholes.  The woman gather the Bush Leaves to use for medicinal and therapeutic purposes.