Ilyarnayt - Audrey Kngwarreye Morton

"Ilyarnayt. It’s growing everywhere in Ngarwenyerra. My country. On those sandhills back there. Pretty flowers, yellow ones. Tyape likes them too. He living in there, inside those roots. We dig them up. Tyape kere mwerr-angker."

Audrey Kngwarreye Morton paints Ilyarnayt, the flowering acacia that grows across her Country in the Utopia region of Central Australia. After rain, the small yellow blossoms spread widely across the sandhills, bringing colour and life to the desert landscape. These plants are deeply connected to the seasonal rhythms of Country and the knowledge passed down through generations.

Among the roots of the acacia live Tyape, the witchetty grubs, an important traditional bush food gathered by digging carefully into the earth beneath the plants. Audrey’s paintings speak not only of the beauty of the flowering landscape, but also of the close relationship between people, plants and food sources on Country.