Maku – bush tucker by Marjorie Boko

Description

Artist: Marjorie Boko

Cat#: 135-23

Size and medium: 56 x 46 cm Painting

Title: Maku – bush tucker

‘Maku’ is the witchety grub, the laval stage caterpillar of the wood moth. It is dug from inside the root of the acacia bush. Maku are collected by the women in a coolamon dish and cooked in the ashes of the fire or eaten raw. Some say the taste is like egg white and like eggs, they are packed with protein. An essential food in the native desert diet. Here Marjorie shows the women hunting using traditional U shaped symbols with their sticks and the collected Maku are in the large central circle.

Marjorie always lived in Titjikala. She works at the art centre and she loves painting. She is married to Neville Button.