- Title: sand palm/resistance
- Artist: Judy Watson
- Region: Queensland
- Art Centre: Independent artist
- Medium: Etching
- Collection: Replant Single Prints
- Dimensions: 33 cm x 25 cm
- Edition Size: 40
- Price ($AUD): $ 500
Artwork Story
The fruit of the Sand Palm is used for the grey dyes for the merrepen weavings of dilly bags. We ate some of the cabbage from the stalk of the Sand Palm which was delicious, ‘good tucker’ and is apparently good for coughs and colds. Catherine Bamul and Christina (Yambeing) showed us how to pull the merrepen or central part out of the Sand Palm. You take the second one and pull it out with a hard tug. It needs to have part of the trunk showing to be the right age. You shake it out like a fan. The edges of each leaf are peeled down both sides to get the fibre, then this is rolled up and down the leg to get a two ply roll. The edge of the stalk of the Sand Palm is used as a bread knife. The base of the young ones are sometimes dug up and cooked.
I wanted to show the meshing and interconnection of everything that we were viewing and experiencing in the bush. The end of the wet season was a complex time of year to identify plants. The Spear Grass was like a matrix or veil through which we saw the Sand Palms and other plants. It was taller than us and we were within it, not able to see very far. Catherine Bamul showed me how to find the bush potatoes in the damp ground while we were waiting.
Recently I read Marcia Langton’s accounts of Aboriginal people in north Queensland hiding in the long grass evading white authorities and the massacres of their people in the early years of contact.
I wish to acknowledge the information on plants, and their uses that I was given by Glenn Wightman and the women from the Daly River community who accompanied us on our trips into their country. I also want to thank Dr Sue Jackson for the research notes, which accompanied my investigations into the plants of the Daly River region. It was a fantastic experience, a privilege, and really inspirational for my work. The Herbarium and Nomad Art Productions (Rose and Angus Cameron) have instigated a really interesting project, which ties scientists in with artists and communities. Judy Watson 2006
Copyright 2006 This work and documentation is the copyright of the artist and author and may not be reproduced in any form without written permission of the artist or author.