Around 1995/96 Emily worked on the Yam series, with the focus on her major Dreaming story: a specific yam that grows beneath the surface. The subject of this work is Arlatyeye, the Pencil Yam or Bush Potato. This is a valuable food source and the subject of important songs, dances and ceremonies amongst Eastern Anmatyerre people. As the foliage dies off, cracks appear in the ground, which trace the root system, and indicate that the engorged tubers are ready to be dug up and eaten. Solid lines, stark and unadorned, trace the meandering paths of the pencil yam roots as they forge their way through the desert sands. Images such as this are always linked to Awelye - ceremonies that release spiritual power to maintain natures’ fertility and hardiness. Body painting lines are fundamental to the participatory role of women in these ceremonies. This practise is symbolically linked to this work and helps evoke an atmosphere of ceremony. The belief that good seasons always return, that yam ‘always comes back’, is fundamental to understanding the desert environment and therefore survival. A parallel layer of expression runs with the fundamental understanding of Awelye , that being of basic human nature, understanding it, and abiding by the rules set down by society in order that it too, will survive. It was the subject of a great number of Emily Kngwarreye’s paintings, which were created, most familiarly, in a vast array of vibrant colours. In this painting however, Emily has characterised the roots of the yam in the plant’s full period of maturity and in a stark minimalist black and white contrast, emphasizing the artist’s innovative abilities to depict traditionally significant objects or ceremonies.

Please note that all First Nations Art is created from a so called ‘Birds Eye’ view. This means that the paintings can be hung either horizontally as well as vertically.