Awelye Ceremony - Emily Kame Kngwarreye

On this canvas, the artist's choice of a rich yellow represents the most important plant in her custodianship, namely the “Anooralya”, a hardy and fertile plant that provides both a tube vegetable and a seed-bearing flower called “kame” - Emily's tribal name. Other colours reflect the time of the season when particular bush flowers flourish.

These flowers contain seeds that are collected to make types of seed cake, damper, medicines and love potions. Other colours symbolise the 'ndorkwa', or bush plum, when unripe. The dots being placed in lineal fashion and placed amongst lines, connects with the practice of anointing the body with lineal designs during ceremony, thus adding another dimension of celebration in the execution of this painting.