Rachael Nambula / Bush Medicine (RN05)

Rachael Nambula was born in 1970 at Stirling Station, north of Ti Tree in Central Australia.

Rachael comes from one of the most celebrated painting families in Australia. She is the daughter of 2005 Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award winner, Evelyn Pultara and the niece of the late Greeny Purvis Petyarre who was a tribal elder, senior artist and ceremonial leader who lived at Boundary Bore, Utopia. Other relatives include the most famous of the female aboriginal artists – Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Minnie Pwerle, Barbara Weir and Gloria Petyarre.

Rachael began painting in the 1990’s under the tutelage of her mother and other female relatives. Evelyn is a senior custodian for her Dreaming, the bush yam, which Rachael incorporates into her bush medicine artworks. Rachael brings to her paintings all the beautiful colours of the desert after the rain, and her gentle demeanour makes her a wonderful ambassador for the art of Utopia.

Rachael has recently moved back to the Utopia homelands with her husband, daughter and three sons.

Rachael paints the bush tucker and medicine found in abundance in her country, the Utopia region of the Northern Territory. The most prominent in this artwork is the Pencil Yam (Atnwelarre) which is a trailing herb or creeper, sometimes covering large areas, with bright green leaves, yellow flowers and long skinny yams (swollen roots). The yam is an important food source which can be eaten raw or cooked in hot sand and ashes and is still a staple food for the desert aborigines where it can be harvested at any time of the year. It is also renowned for its medicinal properties. This medicine is used to heal cuts, wounds, bites, rashes and as an insect repellent. Other bush tucker includes atnyerlenge (native fuchsia) which has sweet honey found in its flowers and the Alpar which is the Anmatyerre word for the Rat-Tail Goosefoot plant. This is a small herb that is sticky to touch and is citrus scented. It produces small clustered flowers that form long spikes, resembling that of a rat tail, as well as small black shiny seeds which are very high in protein.