Australian Bush Plant # 130 Kangaroo Vine (also called Wild Grape and Wild Apple) - Cissus antarctica Drawing

I have often been asked me how I came to be interested in Australian Bush Plants and the uses to which Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander peoples have applied them over a period of many thousands of years. I have replied that it has simply ‘always been that way’. My first interest started when I was quite young and roamed in the bush-land of the ‘Top-End’ of the Northern Territory, with my mother and elderly Aboriginal women looking for food and medicine plants. At regular times of the year, I always got excited when I recognized signs that I had been taught which told me that certain plants were now ready for gathering or harvest or told stories about what animals, birds, and fish they were associated with and were now able to be hunted. The many varieties of plums, vine-fruit, yams, fruits, berries, seeds and plants that were readily edible and available made our mouths drip with anticipation of the sweet and exhilarating tastes we learned to expect. It truly was a paradise of exotic and magic tastes that I will never forget. As I grew older I keenly remembered this information and whenever it was possible I sought out similar information in other geographical areas I visited. In 1983, my interest in bush plants developed further as I started to record plants I already knew by revisiting areas of my ‘growing up’ and sketched them. Since then, I have spent the last 34 years obtaining information about plants in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities I have visited throughout Australia. It has been a journey of learning, healing, enlightenment, personal satisfaction and so much more. I give thanks to the knowledge that was readily given to me by the many Elders within those communities that shared and entrusted their knowledge with me for this purpose and hope that I would one day write and publish this information to ensure it was not lost. I am now getting older and it is time to give this information on to others to protect it. I have included over 300 drawings in my book - Australian Bush Plant Usage by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people - available through Amazon stores, and plan to release a further edition sometime in the near future when time permits. I respectfully acknowledge, and pay recognition to all Traditional Owners of this land in which we live and call Australia.

Drawing:Digital on Paper

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:11.5 W x 16.5 H x 0.1 D in

Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.