Alison Munti Riley b. 1966

In this painting, Alison depicts Kaliny-Kalinypa, or the honey grevillea plant grevillea eriostachya, a native shrub that produces long spikes of bright yellow-green flowers. It is a sought-after food source, cherished in particular by Anangu children for the honey-like nectar that the flowers produce. Alison talks of her memories of the flowers being placed in a in a coolamon with kapi (water) to soak, which makes a refreshing sweet drink that she calls “bush cordial”, or “honey water”. There is cultural significance and Dreaming stories related to this plant; Alison says this Kaliny-Kalinypa Dreaming story belonged to her great-grandmother, her father’s grandmother. She also depicts a Wangunu (Bush Damper Seed) story. Alison depicts the country she knows so intimately, the precious water sources around which medicinal botanicals and nutritious bush foods, like bush damper, grow in abundance. She paints the way bush damper seeds are collected by women, are ground and shaken in a piti (coolamon, or a carved wooden bowl) to make a flour from which damper, a bread-like tucker, is made.