The Artists at Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre belong to Tjoritja, the Western MacDonnell Ranges. Their Country and the native plants that grow on it are so sacred to them. The land holds many secrets and deep meaning to them and their families. They paint their Country and the bush foods upon it, to celebrate their land. For them, Christmas time is summertime, and that means that there is a lot of rainfall in Mparntwe and in the Western regions too. With all this rainfall comes a lot of greenery and growth on the land. This festive season is when bush tuckers and bush fruits flourish and the Iltja Ntjarra artists celebrate this through their art.
In Iltja Ntjarra studio artist Delina Inkamla’s words, ‘We would like to thank the Eastern and Central Arrernte mob, to let us do this work on their behalf. Because it is part of their country so we thought it would be best if we use their bushtuckers (names and language), that grows in the Christmas Season.’
Our project, the Christmas tree base, features large scale paintings of native specimen designs that were researched and studied by six artists from Iltja Ntjarra. Art Centre The plant designs that were created and painted onto the Christmas tree base are all by Western Aranda women and are used as traditional bush food and medicine.
“Bush onions, quandong, bush tomatoes… These plants start fruiting at Christmas time. We clean them down with sand and then water. They make good bush medicine for the flu “says Carita Coulthard (Studio artist at Iltja Ntjarra Art Centre)