QUILTING, APPLIQUE, PICTURE

This patchwork and applique quilt, ‘BALBUK’S COUNTRY: PLANT TUCKER: BELOW GROUND’,by Pat Forster, is one of 15 designed and stitched by WA Inspired Art Quilters for an exhibition, acknowledging and celebrating the life of Fanny Balbuk Yooreel, a Noongar aboriginal activist in the
19th century and her aboriginal culture.
Roots, bulbs and tubers gathered by the aboriginal women with digging sticks, (depicted in applique in centre of quilt,) were a major source of food. They were collected in particular locations until white settlement barred access.
Machine embroidered text reads: yams and reed rhizomes were staples .. women were the harvesters .. roots were eaten raw or roasted . white settlement stopped access.