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Kulparn trees are tall and bushy. They have yellow flowers which are long and have green seed pods. Seeds are cooked in hot sand and you can eat them when they are dry and turned black. My jaja (grandmother) used to grind the dried seeds into flour. We used to use this flour when we had no normal flour.

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When I was a young girl I was walking with my jaja ( grandmother) and japi (grandfather). I said to them "Look there is water there, I am thirsty". My grandfather said " No, that is not water, that is yirrirriny, (heat haze).

Yirrirriny is a heat wave, don’t look at it, it will blind your eyes. Thats what my japi (grandfather) used to tell me. The heatwave is shiny and dancing.

During the gentle monsoon rains, people stay inside and sing rain songs. The Fitzroy Crossing River rises. Eva’s country, Christmas Creek, gets full and floods. The water covers the plain and fills the billabongs (rarrakatji). It can rain for weeks and weeks.

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During an electrical storm, lightning hits the white rocks and starts a bush fire.

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On the other side of Kupartiya, there is a big spring you could access by climbing the hills on the other side of the river, near Nipper’s dam. The spring has beautiful white sand and lots of Dinjil (snappy gum trees). Eva would take her children there when they were young.

Gooniyandi people used to live there building yards. They used to collect seeds and bush medicine. The Walmajarri name for that place is Mangu, meaning big perch (a kind of fish). 

Appeared in this exhibition

Appeared in this exhibition

Appeared in this exhibition

Kulparn (wattle tree) grows seed pods that hang down everywhere from a low shrub. As a small child, my grandmother would get me to collect the seed pods so she could cook them on the fire. When the seed pods are all dried up, the old ladies collect them and yarrikanu (winnow) them with their coolaman, which are then ready for grinding into flour. I grew up on this bush tucker. That’s why I paint them.

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In my painting, there is a desert background and lots of Jitapurru grass growing. My jaja (grandmother) used the fine glossy grass to boil bush medicine for her cold when she fell sick. My jaja and jabi would make a mangkaja (wet weather shelter) out of strong branch and cover all over with spinifex grass. We were always dry and kept warm, out of the rain and cold winter nights. This happened a long time ago.

Appeared in this exhibition

Appeared in this exhibition

Cold weather season is the time to collect junda. My grandmother used to collect them from the ground. After the rain, young junda plants are green. The yellow and brown ones are dry junda plants. Black ones are fully grown.

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It is right out on top of the sand hills not far from Kupartiya, south east of Fitzroy Crossing. We (my family) used to go there for picnics, usually on Saturday or Sunday and we would camp overnight. It was a good time for hunting and finding mangarri (bush vegetables).

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Parrang Parrang are small yellow flowers that grow in hot weather. They are like a bunch of bush that are small with very yellow flowers. I used to pick them and eat the tiny seeds which taste like nuts.

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