Räkay or water reed, sedge and its edible rush corm (root portions) Eleocharis dulcis were also a staple of Yolngu life before wheat flour. It was a communal activity for women to gather these in the dry season in the dried out floodplains. This work depicts both the sacred and secular aspects of these root foods. Eleochoris dulcis song by Djapu and Dhudi Djapu. This work is an outcome of a phase where the artist of her own motion explored lesser known plant species which she feared were being forgotten by younger generations. This coincided with artist John Wolseley’s interest in returning to Yilpara and the two spent an extended period exploring the botany of Blue Mud Bay. She wants to renew the knowledge of this plants because when she was young this is the food that she grew up on. In those days old people lived for a long time without illness. The project began when the two artists Mulkun Wirrpanda and John Wolseley were part of Djalkiri- We are Standing on their Names- a collaborative art project at Yilpara in 2009. Later Mulkun adopted John as her Wawa or brother, and gave him the name Langgurrk. They spent ten days together in the remote Blue Mud Bay region in Midawarr, the harvest season, when many of the little known root foods are ripe. Since then John Wolseley has journeyed to East Arnhem land each season, and the two have hunted rare plants, painted them; and eaten the unique tropical yams and tubers . From the Yirrkala perspective the origin point of this show was Mulkun’s spontaneous expression of her conviction that her people are dying through their lack of attention to this knowledge. It was shortly after this statement that she and Wolesley came together over this joint mission. Since then Wirrpanda has been making a comprehensive series of barks, larrakitj and prints about the poorly reciognised food