© National Portrait Gallery 2024
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“This is me. I was cutting that sugarbag (bush honey) and my niece (my brother’s daughter) came with a billycan to get that sugarbag. And when she ate it, she was vomiting. And that was that little daughter for her. That was the sugarbag. That made her sick.”
Shirley is recounting the conception of her niece’s daughter, Melissa (Milly) Martin. Almost 20 years ago, Shirley took Milly, who was then a young woman, hunting for sugarbag from a bloodwood tree near the Violet Valley turnoff. Milly and Shirley ate the tasty sugarbag. Later on, when they came home to Warmun, Milly began to feel nauseous and couldn’t stop vomiting. It was then that they knew she was carrying her child. To this day, Milly can no longer stand the taste of sugarbag. That bloodwood tree is still there at the turnoff.
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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