Aboriginal, Bay Gallery Home, Interior Design, Made in the UK, My Country, tile, Visual Language, provenance

My Country: feeding off the land

My Country, Bush Onion 1 ceramic tile

My Country, Bush Onion 1 ceramic tile

Bush onion, or janmarda, can be found in the river banks and are dug up using digging sticks. The Aboriginal people wait for the leaves to dry out before eating it. So long as the bulb is white inside, it will be eaten raw or cooked. 

Through her painting, the tile artist Sarah Napurrula White is telling a Bush Onion Dreaming, or Janmarda Jukurrpa. One of the main sites for this story is Purrupurru,  in the remote red centre of Australia, where you can see an old Jungarrayi man in the form of a large stone figure.

Sarah also likes to paint Bush Onion Dreamings because she likes the designs and patterns. When she’s not painting, Sarah works for the aged and children, and on weekends she loves to go hunting with the old people. 

The majority of our artists are women who play an active role in their communities, not only practically but in building communal ties through the visual language of Dreamtime painting.

With their geometric harmony, these ceramic tiles lend themselves to versatile use, from en masse styling as a splash back, to design feature in our bespoke furniture range.

Bush Onion 1 beautifully offsetting modern minimalism.

Bush Onion 1 beautifully offsetting modern minimalism.

Bush Onion 1, Cedar of Lebanon table

Bush Onion 1, Cedar of Lebanon table