• Size: 200 x 112cm
• Fabric: Cotton 100%

• Size: 300cm x 137cm
• Artist: Lennie Goya-Airra

Mankotbe (bush onion) grows under the ground, we follow the vine to dig it up. It is brown on the outside and white inside and we cook it on the fire, just like a potato. All the old people used to eat Mankotbe on my homeland. My grandmother showed me how to find that plant and the first time I ate so much my mouth got sore! You can’t be too greedy.

This design brings back good memories for me. I used to eat Mankotbe when I was young and living at my homeland Buluhkaduru. In those old times, my house was made of paper bark and sticks. If we wanted to come into town we had to walk, and it’s a long walk, so we would fill our dilly bags with sugar bag honey, Mankotbe and long yams to eat on the way. They were good times for me.

You can find Mankotbe any time of the year- the plant has big black leaves. When you find one onion, you know there is big mob around- they are always connected by a big long vine underground

• Length: 1.7m
• Width: 137cm, 120gsm
• Medium: 100% Silk M/Woven 120 reed Dupion 137cm (highest quality weave)
• CATNO: dl-bushtrip-goldsilver-onpeacock-silk

Description

This design by Eunice depicts her father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming). It shows the country at Kuruyultu, near Tjukurrla in Western Australia.

Eunice Napanangka Jack says about the design:

‘This is my country. I can’t remember how it all happened, because it happened before I was born. I have a scar on my back from it. My grandfather speared a wallaby at Kuruyultu. That night he ate that wallaby. At the same time my mother could feel me moving inside her. She was heavily pregnant with me. That next morning, after my grandfather had speared the wallaby, killed it and eaten it, I was born. I was born at Kuruyultu, near the rockhole there. I can’t remember my grandfather or my grandmother. I was still a little baby. We left that place, Kuruyultu. My father, my mother, my big sister and my father’s brother, we all left together and went to Haasts Bluff. I grew up in Haasts Bluff. I have been back to Kuruyultu for visits but I never lived there again in my country. I think about it every day. Only my father knows all the stories for that country and he painted them too… all the men’s stories. I know the story of the wallaby mother and daughter which left me with a birthmark. That’s what I paint: the wallaby mother and daughter.’

About the printers:

Publisher Textiles & Papers is one of Australia’s leading print houses. Focused on producing original patterns through traditional hand-screen printing methods we create bold and colourful textiles, hand printed wallpaper, clothing and fabric.

Our fabric is printed in small batches and is cut to order. For larger quantities, please email us to discuss pre-orders.

Fabric details:

70% Tencel, 30% Linen

Width 145cm

172gsm