Bush Medicine by Joycie Morton Petyarre | Stretched

The plants depicted in Joycie's painting are found in the country around Amperlatwatye in Central Australia and are used for making bush medicine.One is a desert flower Joycie calls yoomba loomba, used for soothing skin infections by way of an ointment, and another is called apeng which, in addition to an ointment, can be mixed with water and made into a drink to help with coughs and colds.

Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.

"There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”