A spontaneous afternoon collecting bush flowers turned into something far more significant for the residents of Juniper Gerdewoonem in Kununurra, a reconnection to country and culture that also happened to make the perfect Mother’s Day gift.
Residential Manager Belinda Storer said the trip had been a long time coming. “The ladies were talking about bush medicine and flowers,” she said. “They had been talking to me since I first got here, telling me all about the different spots, Molly Springs in particular.”
One of those ladies is Molly, a Gerdewoonem resident, and Molly Springs is her country. She had been sharing stories about the land with Belinda, including the story of a visit from Nicole Kidman, who Molly had once taken to the spring when the actress came to the Kimberley.
Not long after, Nicole fell pregnant with her daughter Sunday Rose.
Together with residents Belinda took a bus and headed out into the Kununurra landscape.
Belinda drove to the places she knew, and up at Kelly’s Knob they found what they were looking for, flowers, branches, boab nuts, and lessons in traditional knowledge passed from the back of a bus. “I parked where they could see everything I was doing, and they told me what to pick, how to pick it, and what to look for. They were my teachers, like instructing their kids.”
The Kurrajong, with its bright yellow flower, was one of the first finds. “One of the ladies told me to look on the ground for the fruit, because while the flowers are on the tree, the fruit would be on the ground.”
They also gathered soft pink Gomphrena canescens and a bundle of boab nuts.
Belinda following every instruction called out from the back seat.
With the flowers safely loaded, Belinda grabbed sandwiches, restocked the water, and kept driving towards Molly Springs. As the bus rolled through the landscape, the ladies watched out the windows, pointing out trees and plants they recognised along the way.
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