11. Bathi, 2023 (27/40)
This woman is the widow and mother of Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Prize winners. Her whole life revolves around the production of art and the collection of food. Usually these two objectives are achieved simultaneously. T
his echoes a series which evolved in 2011 from her painting of small barks depicting woven pandanus bags dyed with natural colours. The dyes used in pandanus include the bark from the root of the Rotten Cheesefruit (burukpili- Morinda Citrofolia). She created works that showed scenes associated with gathering materials for the creation of Bathi (baskets). This includes cups of tea, djitama (cheeky yam) and sleeping dogs.
Based on this idea, the artist completed a series of paintings in 2012 that featured string woven dillybags and then added the women going hunting to collect the Darranggurrk (Kurrajong bark) to make the string. Then a dog or two or a husband with a spear and eventually a tea cup found its way into the theme. Many years later and now she is too frail to join these trips anymore she revisited it in this print of bathi or bags- more properly this form is known as gay'wu.