Hello. Good to see you. I was born in Ngarangarri country, now a part of Beverley Springs Station (central Kimberley). Ngarangarri is the honey dream: ngara minbinya, (“honey is good tucker” (food)).

In the old bush days we did not worry for birthdays. My read and write mate Kevin Shaw has looked at writing on gravestones in the bush to help work out my age. I am around eighty-five years old, and might be older.

I was a small baby when my mother died. My dad took me around the bush in a bark coolamon (aboriginal bowl) and found a woman who was breastfeeding a little boy. That little boy and I shared her ngaman (milk). She was a good woman; that is why I am still alive today.

Young kid time I footwalked all over Ngarangarri and Winyiduwa (clan estates) with my dad and grandfather. They were good men with a spear. We had too much tucker, yali (animal similar to a lion) and walamba (kangaroos), kananganja (emu), manan-gut (crocodile), fish and cherramba (freshwater prawn), manganda (yam) and manbada (water lily).

Later on, I worked on cattle stations (ranches) mustering and tailing bullocks (young male cattle). Riding tail, we got covered in dust and the smell of bullocks. Woman worked all day like a man them days. Then the man wanted the woman to work all night in the swag (outside sleeping area).

My dad and grandfather used to paint the real Wandjina (rain spirit) in the caves, and I used to watch them. Now I am having a go at painting on canvas. Painting brings back good memories of footwalking the country.

Sugarbags 86 ∙ 35 x 52 ∙ acrylic on canvas ∙ $3,100

Sugarbags 33 ∙ 35 x 52 ∙ acrylic on canvas ∙ $3,100

Sugarbag, or “bush honey”, is a favourite food for Bush People. The old people used to tell us, “ngaraminbinya”, which means, “honey is good tucker” (food). In my time in the bush, we used to mix honey with the flesh from the boab nuts. It tastes nice, and is good medicine for colds.

There are two kinds of Sugarbag: Tree Sugarbag and Ground Sugarbag. One kind of honey bee likes to make its home in trees, and the other one lives in little holes in the ground and cliff walls.

I was born under a Ngarrangaarni tree, a special tree that is a spirit. This tree was also the home of the sugarbag bee. No one is allowed to cut this tree to get the honey, but they can cut other trees for honey.

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This site is maintained by Robert Foster.