Wattle: ‘bush tucker’, a connection to Country & an Australian identity

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / ‘Bush tucker’ series 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / ‘Bush tucker’ series 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja / View full image

There are some 1,000 Australian Acacia species and they grow across every state and territory, these plants are adaptable and resilient and have become a unifying symbol of Australian identity and connection to Country.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, native plants provide nourishment, healing and the raw materials to create functional and ceremonial objects, shelter and tools for hunting. Their seasonal occurrence has tremendous ecological and theological importance. Lessons embedded into cultural stories, ceremony, art, dance and Songlines — refined over millennia of caring for Country — contain information critical to the safe use and sustainable collection of natural resources.

We’ve also been celebrating wattle for its symbolism since 1910, and from 1912, the Coat of arms of Australia has had a background of golden wattle — the national floral emblem — and when in flower, the wattle displays the national colours of Australia — green and gold.

Wattle Blossom 1910

‘Young girl in the midst of wattle bushes’ / Supplement to The Queenslander 1910 / 99183730923102061 / Courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane

‘Young girl in the midst of wattle bushes’ / Supplement to The Queenslander 1910 / 99183730923102061 / Courtesy: John Oxley Library, State Library of Queensland, Brisbane / View full image

Rona Rubuntja Lupa (Wattle seed) 2009

Rona Rubuntja is from Hermannsburg, about 130km west of Alice Springs, generally known for their Namatjira-style watercolours, however Arrente women have been working with coil-built pottery since 1990.

Typical items have the lids decorated with modelled figures of animals or ‘bush tucker’ such as the wattle seed. The surface decoration adapts their tribal stories to the new medium, and as pottery making is not a traditional medium, the potters view their work as an avenue for self expression, not a utilitarian item.

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / Lupa (wattle seed) (from ‘Bush tucker’ series) 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / Lupa (wattle seed) (from ‘Bush tucker’ series) 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja / View full image

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / ‘Bush tucker’ series 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja

Rona Rubuntja, Potter, Arrernte people, Australia b.1970 / Hermannsburg Potters, Pottery workshop, Australia est. 1990 / ‘Bush tucker’ series 2009 / Earthenware, hand-built terracotta clay with underglaze colours and applied decoration / 13 x 9cm / Purchased 2010 with funds raised through the QAG Foundation Appeal / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rona Rubuntja / View full image

Nellie Ngampa Coulthard Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2018

Nellie Ngampa Coulthard’s colourful representations of her Country and home — roughly 300km south-east of the APY Lands, in the community of Indulkana — is a mix of styles, combining traditional dotting techniques in whites and yellows evoking the colours and heat haze of the desert sands, while dividing the painting with meandering lines, which in one orientation reveal the local wattles that she vividly recalls seeing in flower as a child, their vibrant yellows piercing the hard country.

In Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle), Coulthard’s composition of wattle trees is also suggestive of the many creeks that flow through the area, feeding Lake Eyre some 200km away. This country is renowned for transforming during times of rain, and Coulthard’s paintings often exhibit a tonal shift from hot colours to cool, evocative of the transformations that the country periodically undergoes.

Nellie Ngampa Coulthard, Yankuntjatjara people, Australia b.1947 / Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2018 / Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 167 x 198cm / Purchased 2018. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane / © Nellie Ngampa Coulthard/Copyright Agency

Nellie Ngampa Coulthard, Yankuntjatjara people, Australia b.1947 / Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2018 / Synthetic polymer paint on linen / 167 x 198cm / Purchased 2018. QAGOMA Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane / © Nellie Ngampa Coulthard/Copyright Agency / View full image

Nellie Ngampa Coulthard’s Tjuntala Ngurangka (Country with Acacia Wattle) 2018 and Rona Rubuntja’s ‘Bush tucker’ series 2009 are on display in ‘Seeds and Sovereignty’ at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) until 18 August 2024.

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