Bush Turkey

Abie Loy Kemarre

Abie is painting elements of the Bush Turkey story. This story is associated with the ancestral dreaming from her country, Ilyentye, also known as Ahalpere. The bush turkey (Ardeotis australis) known as arwengerrp in Anmatyerre is usually found in densely grassed areas. It is a favoured food for the aboriginal people and hunting is still carried out today.

In this painting, Abie says the dot work represents akatyerre (desert raisin or bush tomato); a food that the bush turkey likes to eat. The various lines in this painting represent tracks that the turkey is ‘travelling around on; taking children everywhere looking for bush tomatoes’. They are travelling in Abie’s country, Ilyentye, on ‘the other side’ of an old dry river bed that runs through Mosquito Bore in Utopia. The circle in the centre of this painting represents a waterhole where the bush turkey comes to drink kwatye (water).