Patricia Nakamarra Oldfield, Karnta Jukurrpa (Women's Dreaming) - Bush Medicine, 76x46cm

Aboriginal medicine is widely practised in the Northern Territory today. It is a complex system closely linked to the culture and beliefs of the people, their understanding of the land and its flora and fauna. It is a holistic approach, intergrating the social, physical and spiritual aspects of health and life. The Warlpiri health system includes the ngangkayikirlior traditional healers; the Yawulyuceremonies, (Napangardi Women’s Jukurrpa); and the Herbal or Bush Medicine. Depicted in this painting are the bush medicine plants that grow on traditional homelands in the Northern Territory, plants that are collected by the women. The Warlpiri have extensive knowledge of plants, and the use of bush medicine is shared by the whole family and not to any particular group.

Over fifty different medicinal plants have been recorded, all containing biologically active compounds. They are mainly used symptomatically for coughs and colds, pains and aches, and digestive problems. Some are used as dressings for wounds and sores. Plants used on sores and wounds contain proteolytic enzymes that help healing.  Below are just a few of the many medicinal plants that grow in the Northern Territory.

In preparing tonics, Bitter Bark (Alstonia constricta), is often used, which contains reserpine, a tranquilliser and antihypertensive. Gumbi Gumbi (pittosprum angustifolium), a small shrub with little star-shaped yellow flowers and yellow/orange skinned fruit, a versatile indigenous medicine, is used in a number of traditional medicinal applications, from the treatment of coughs and colds to eczema, and even used for lactagogue(milk let-down) activity. Although both the fruit and the seeds have medicinal properties, it is the leaves (used as a tea, tonic, dried in capsules or in salves/creams), that yield the most effective treatments. The readily available native lemon grasses (Cymbopogon ambiguus A. Camus) is also used as a tea/tonic, and is effective for treating diarrhoea, and coughs, sore throats and colds. It can also be applied to the skin for treatment of rashes and sores, and a root poultice mixture can be applied to ears for earaches. 

Ngalyipi(Snake Vine - Hibbertia scandens), is another effective anti-inflammatory and antiseptic bush medicine. The leaves and stems are warmed and mashed into a paste and used for pain of arthritis, for joints and other inflammation caused by injuries. Ngarlkirdi (Witchetty Grub), a good bush tucker is also a good bush medicine and when crushed and made into a paste is used externally for the treatment of burns and open wounds.

Patricia Nakamarra Oldfield was born in 1982 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She has lived in Yuendumu most of her life. She is the daughter of two Warlukurlangu painters. Patricia is married to Sebastian Jangala Roberston and both of them are very active and positive members of the art centre. They have no children but have adopted a small boy called Favian who they look after. Patricia finished Primary School at Yuendumu High School and then left to get married. Both she and her husband are actively involved with the Mt Theo Program, in particular the Jaru Pirrjirdi Youth Development, which incorporates the Yuendumu Youth Program. Patricia has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2001. She paints stories that are closely associated with her traditional country. Her main story is Warna Jukurrpa (Snake Dreaming), Dreamings that have been passed down to her from her father and his father’s father for millennia.