Debbie Brown NAPALJARRI

Tomato Bush Dreaming , 2021

Art : Aboriginal
Origine : Yuendumu
Dimensions : 107 x 107 cm
Medium : Acrylic on canvas
Price : NOUS CONTACTER / CONTACT US
N° : 3983

Debbie Brown is the "guardian" of the place where the bush tomato grows and as such, it is her responsibility to perform the rituals which must maintain the fertility of the site concerned: to communicate to the earth a spiritual force which will support the growth of plants, the artist and the women of his clan group apply body paint, sing and dance during sacred ceremonies called “awelye” during which the ground is also painted using the dotted technique characteristic of the pictorial art of the central desert that Debbie Brown reproduces here.

The Wanakiji Jukurrpa (bush Tomato dreaming) travels through Yaturlu (near mount Theo, north of Yuendumu). 

Wanakiji grows in the open spinifex country and is a small, prickly plant with purple flowers that bears green fleshy fruit with many small black seeds. After collecting the fruit the seeds are removed with a small wooden spoon called Kajalarra. The fruit then can be eaten raw or threaded onto skewers calles Turlturrpa and then cooked over a fire.

Wanakiji can also be skewered and left to dry. When they are prepared in this way it is called Turlturrpa and the fuit can be kept for a long time. In contemporary Warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa.