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“This is that bush yam. This is my mother (right) and he bin teach me (left) for diggin’ when I bin a little girl. This tucker now, this potato or root. When this tree gets yellow, that’s the time we go and dig him.”
This is bush tucker knowledge Shirley’s mother passed down to her. When she was a young girl, around ten years old, her mother would teach her how to dig up the root of the bush yam tree. She learned that when the tree flowered yellow, it was the correct time to dig up the roots. Generally, this happens in ‘wangan’ or cold weather/winter. However, Shirley has noted that climate change is affecting the seasonal flowering, and sometimes this tree bears yellow flowers when it is not supposed to.
27 May 2020
Emily Casey takes in Shirley Purdie’s remarkable self-portrait, Ngalim-Ngalimbooroo Ngagenybe.
This exhibition features new works from ten women artists reinterpreting and reimagining elements of Australian history, enriching the contemporary narrative around Australia’s history and biography, reflecting the tradition of storytelling in our country.
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