Bush Onion – Yalka
Community: Papunya
Acrylic on Canvas
61.0 X 91.5cm
2008
In this painting Rachel is telling us about bush onion or Yalka which is a traditional Aboriginal bush food. Rachel said that this painting is specific to Karinyara which is near Mt Wedge. The circles are the rock holes, or “Lupul”, the brown lines represent the underground water channels. The bush onion is represented by the white dots. Bush onions may be eaten raw or cooked after removing the hard casing. They are a small onion sedge with corms on shallow roots the size of a small shallot.
The women would perform a traditional ceremony in honour of the Bush Onion where they dance and paint their breast, chest and forearms in ceremonial body designs. They also decorate their bodies with feathers and dance with ceremonial objects such as nulla nullas (ceremonial dancing baton).