Yalka Tjukurrpa (Bush Onion Dreaming)

Irene Gorey Nampijinpa

Size: 68 x 210cm

The Story: Irene Gorey Nampijinpa was born in Papunya, a small Aboriginal community roughly 240 km north west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. In Aboriginal culture, the women gather, the men hunt, and food is shared across the community. Women go on gathering trips together to collect seasonal wild foods and medicines. Here the women are collecting the wild bush onions (yalka). The yalka plant looks like a grass and has small edible bulbs found just under the ground. Yalka can be eaten raw strait out of the ground or cooked in the hot ashes from the camp fire.