Bush Food Puzzle

Bush Food Puzzle 240 x 200mm, 12 pce wooden jigsaw, including Dreaming story and activities

                        Bush Food – Birrguu Dhangang

Winanggaay Puzzles       Artwork and interpretation by Donna Hensen, of the Wiradjuri people 

           This painting shows eight women sitting at their campsite. Traditionally, women mainly gathered and cooked the food, while men hunted. There are four coolamons (carrying dishes, made from bark or a “knob” of a tree branch) holding the food they have gathered. The food gives you clues as to the environment in which they live. The four coolamons contain witchetty grubs (beetle lava), a snake and eggs, ants and their eggs, and lizards and eggs.  The women all work closely together, as the symbols of them around the campfire indicate. Coolamons were also used to carry babies, food, tools or small objects.

This style of traditional Aboriginal painting contains only important information. The dots can represent many things eg, ants, sand, dirt, rocks, air or water flow. The symbols and pictures were used as teaching tools and for information.

Notes:              Aboriginal art was and still is used to teach as well as to tell a story. Elders and members of the tribe would draw “stories” like this to teach children about their environment, and important issues such as how and where to find food and water by being able to “read” signs such as tracks. Instead of using pen and paper, they would use natural inks made from plant dyes, or clay and walls of caves, or sticks and dirt to draw the stories.

Activity Suggestions:  Draw and discuss your own picture “story” of how your mother, father or other adult “collects” your food (shopping, picking vegetables etc.)

Discuss and compare the different types of foods in the puzzle, and in what sort of environment they would be found. Compare with the range of foods you eat

Use in conjunction with the Winanggaay Art Interpretation Kit, to learn how to interpret the painting in more detail.                                                                                                                                      ALL AUSTRALIAN MADE