Born c.1941, Ned Johns was from Wave Hill, NT, and was the grandson of the famous land rights leader Vincent Lingiari, who led the Wave Hill walk off, which resulted in the Whitlam Government handing over the station to the Gurindji people. Johns became a stockman on the station, and travelled extensively - working on Argyle, Lissadell, Carlton and Texas Downs Stations in WA and over the border in the Northern Territory. He was a drover and also travelled to Queensland

Ned Johns' cultural totem was the Sugarbag Dreaming, associated with country near Wave Hill. Sugarbag is the honey and wax that is gathered from hives of native bees. Generally the hives are located in hollows in trees. When hunting Aboriginal men and women would set about looking for the bees and once they had located a hive they would cut the tree down and extract the sugarbag from the hollow. Once collected they would then place it in a billy can of water, boil it and drink it, or eat it whole without boiling it. After boiling the wax was soft which made it pliable when used in the production of spears, axes and dress items. Traditionally the honey was crucial as a glucose supplement to a bush tucker diet. 

Ned Johns painted this story almost exclusively with a central point and radiating lines. Different colour dots are used to create patterns (mosaics) that represent the honey comb/sugarbag that give the work interesting depth.