Polly Ngale / Bush Plum Dreaming (16B)

Polly Ngale was born c. 1935 into the Anmatyarre tribe. She was married to Ray Yeramba (deceased) and is the elder sister of well known artists Kathleen Ngale and Angeline Pwerle Ngale. 

This artwork depicts the Bush Plum (or Conkerberry). Polly is the senior custodian of the Bush Plum Dreaming. The varying composition in colour and pattern reveals the geography of the Bush plum, as well as the artist’s intimate knowledge of significant places, such as clay-pans, soakages and spinifex mounds. Bush Plum is a food source for the Aboriginal people from Utopia in the Eastern desert of Central Australia. The women pay homage through body paint, songlines and dance cycles in their ceremonies. (Characteristics of Polly Ngale’s works are the unique over-dotting using layer upon layer of subtle colours such as cream, pink, blue, green, yellow, purple, orange and white).