Bush Bean Tomato & Coconutby Audrey Martin Napanangka

I (Sabine Haider, Director Central Art) have worked with Audrey Martin Napanangka since 2007. Audrey is a Warlpiri woman born in Yuendumu Community, approximately 3 hours North West of Alice Springs in Central Australia. Audrey has lived her whole life in Yuendumu, attending primary school, and later raising her own family in Yuendumu.

Audrey is a well-respected senior artist and learnt her skills from Netta Williams Napanangka (a well-known Warlpiri artist). She commenced painting in 1986 and has been surrounded by painters since she was a small child. Both her parents were artists also.

Audrey often paints bush tucker (food) Dreaming, which feature witchetty grubs, coconut, tomato, grape, and sweet potato. Many bush foods are seasonal and the traditional knowledge of which foods to search for during which seasons is passed down through the generations. Aboriginal people are able to determine which foods are available not by knowing the date or time of year but rather by noticing subtle changes in their environment. Warlpiri women are enthusiastic bush food gatherers often going out in groups to look for delicacies. During these times the women will carry out rituals including singing and dancing to encourage the reproduction of food sources for the following year.

Some of Audrey’s artworks and designs have been transferred onto fabrics and she is one of only a few Warlpiri artists that use multi-coloured dotting in their bush tucker Dreaming artworks. Audrey has taken time to nurture and help develop other young aboriginal artists over the years. Her niece Miriam Williams Napangardi is a prime example of this, and is already a well-known artist herself. I think it is wonderful that this skill and the deep spiritual meanings behind Aboriginal art is being taught to the next generation of Aboriginal artists and they are being nurture through this process, I admire Audrey’s role in this.

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