Women Gathering Bush Tomato | GA-5956

DOB: 1978

Birthplace: Yuendumu

Aboriginal name: Gunija

Skin Name: Nangala Napurrula

Language: Warlpiri


Adrianna Robinson is from Yuendemu, a small town 290km Northwest of Alice Springs. As a young girl, she moved to Katherine with her family where she still lives today.
Adrianna has been painting since 2000, following in the footsteps of her family. She combines the dreamings of her mother, Gladys Spencer Napaltjarr, and father, Nugget James Ted Robinson, focusing on the traditional role of women who gather bush fruit and dreamtime creation stories from her mother’s side, incorporating the dot art she learnt from her father.

Some of the stories Adrianna paints include,
“Women’s Dreamings” stories of women ancestors who travelled across the desert gathering food, often pursued by men.
“Promised Husband” dreaming, which is drawn from legends and songs told to Adrianna by her family and explains how the men caught the women and according to women’s euphemistic accounts, “sat down with them”.

She remembers fondly collecting some of her favourite foods such as honey ants, witchetty grubs and the lerp scale, which is produced by a pink-coloured grub that sucks the sap of eucalyptus leaves, with a pleasant sugary eucalyptus taste.

Adrianna has painted for many galleries within the Northern Territory and her artwork continues to evolve by adding new stories that are passed down to her and extending her colour range from earth colours to brighter hues. Sometimes she even does double or triple dots which gives her paintings a three-dimensional look.