Bush Bees

Fiona Foley is descended from the Badtjala people of Thoorgine or K’gari (Fraser Island). She is one of Australia’s most senior Indigenous artists and academics.

Her concept for this artwork was developed in homage to the encyclopaedic knowledge about ‘Country’ which is at the heart of traditional Aboriginal societies.

The work includes images of:

• native flowers, bees and plants
• an iconic anthropological photograph of an Indigenous man from the Queensland rainforest harvesting native bee honey
• relevant words for the bee in two local Indigenous languages
• 3D native bee sculptures, representing the distinctive native bee itself.

Fiona also references the healing properties of honey and its important use in Indigenous food and ceremony as a source of medicine and energy.