Ningarti Mirrijini Kapiwarta
Maker
Mary Elizabeth Moreen (b.1946)
Date
2018
Description
Story of the painting as told by the artist:
I was born in the bush. I’m a bush baby. They put me on warm coals covered with paper bark. That’s a tunga (bark basket) down
the bottom. We use the tunga to collect the mirrijini (bush medicine), leaves and nuts. In the middle that’s yikwani (fire). In the middle of that fire is a minta (palm nut). When its dry season we go out camping and the children bring the miyaringa (pandanus nuts) to me. The heart shaped leaves are from the muranga (yam). We dig a big hole to find the muranga in the ground. That’s the water running where the minta are. We put the palm leaves on the edge of water and after three days we cover up with paper bark to keep fresh – it tastes sweet. That’s mirrijini. Put ‘em away, cover and use for colds, diarrhoea. In this story I have painted parntirringa (white currant), murunyini (acacia), miparri (fan palm) good for everyone when they have a jikipirti (cough). Yankumwani (green plum) and malakini (bush peanut) are pumpuni yingkiti (good tucker) from the bush, here long before the shops came. Munkarajingi (casuarina) the bark is boiled up, the water treats our skin sores.
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