Bush Yam Dreamingby Rosemary Petyarre

This beautiful artwork represents the flowers of the yam plant. The yam plant was once an important food source for Anmatyerre people of Utopia in Central Australia. It is also a significant totem to those to have an attachment to the Dreaming. The yam plant is celebrated in the Aboriginal women's Awelye ceremonies to ensure its continues germination for generations. In this artwork the artist is paying homage to the spirit of the yam plant.

The Aboriginal women would gather the seeds, then crush and grind them into a thick paste to make bread. In years past, grass seeds were collected in a most unusual way. Because seeds ripened at different stages, many would fall to the ground and be covered by sand, lost from view. Ingeniously the Aboriginal women would look for the nesting site of a particular ant species that they knew collected the seeds, eating a certain portion before discarding the rest in a pile outside the nest. Once the nest was found the women were able to collect the cast off seeds more easily.