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Nungabar (Nyangapa) Nora

This is Nungabar’s Country- her ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). People identify with their ngurra in terms of specific rights and responsibilities, and the possession of intimate knowledge of the physical and cultural properties of one’s Country. Painting ngurra, and in so doing sharing the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories and physical characteristics of that place, has today become an important means of cultural maintenance. Nungabar’s ngurra encompasses her birthplace, near Lipuru well (Libral Well, Canning Stock Route Well 37) and the Country that became Wells 33 through to 38 along the Canning Stock Route, where her family walked in the pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling) era. From an early age Nungabar and her family had encounters with the white men who drove cattle along the route. As a young woman, together with her close friend Nora Wompi, Nungabar followed the drovers north to Balgo Mission, where she settled and raised a family.

Portrayed in this work are features of Nungabar’s family’s ngurra, such as the striking salt lakes, permanent red tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and the individually named water sources they camped at. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for Martu people during the pujiman period, and are generally depicted with circular forms. 

The encyclopaedic knowledge of the location, quality and seasonal availability of the hundreds of water bodies found in one’s Country sustained Martu as they travelled across their Country, hunting and gathering, visiting family, and fulfilling ceremonial obligations. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water and the corresponding cycles of plant and animal life on which hunting and gathering bush tucker was reliant. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of Country, generating a greater diversity of plant and animal life.

Name: Nora (Nyangapa) Nungabar


Language: Manyjilyjarra


Community: Kunawarritji


Biography:

“I was born near Lipuru (Libral Well, Canning Stock Route Well 37) and Pirrkartil is my birthplace. My mother looked after me when I was a little baby in the side of a sandhill. Mum and Dad, they took care of me. We stayed there for a long time when I was little and then we started travelling. They kept me there and then we went to Julyjarru and we stayed there and then I grew up a bit and I started walking. They kept me there and after that they took me to a place called Kil-kil (Kilykily, Canning Stock Route Well 36), and there we stayed again for long time. I was growing bigger when we went to Tintinmarran. We stayed there with other relatives until my parents took me to … Wajaparni. 

Much later I went to Balgo. I had kids when I was travelling. I went east along the Canning Stock Route, and kept going east, to Nyipily (Nyipil, Nibil, Canning Stock Route Well 34), Kinyu (Canning Stock Route Well 35) and Pangkapirni (Bungabindi Well) and Kil-kil. I was walking with a grinding stone, carrying it on my head. We got up and started our journey… travelling with the drovers all the way. We travelled on foot; they didn’t give us a ride on the camels. We thought it was [going to be] close, but it was long way.”

 - Nora Nungabar (Nyangapa) (dec.), as translated by Ngalangka Nola Taylor

 

Nora Nungabar was a Manyjilyjarra woman born near Lipuru well. She grew up in the Country that became Wells 33 through to 38 along the Canning Stock Route. From an early age Nungabar and her family had encounters with the white men who drove cattle along the route. As a young woman, together with her close friend Nora Wompi, Nungabar followed the drovers north to Balgo Mission, where she settled and raised a family.

Nungabar eventually relocated to her homelands at Kunawarritji, though she continued to travel regularly between Kunawarritji, Balgo and Mulan. Through her artistic career, painting with both Warlayirti and Martumili Artists, Nungabar earned critical acclaim for her remarkably expressive, evocative style. Many younger artists described having learned to paint by watching her example. Nungabar was a custodian of a great deal of cultural knowledge about the Kunawarritji area, much of which is referred to in her extensive body of work. Nungabar’s paintings have been exhibited in galleries internationally and throughout Australia, and acquired by the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. 


© the artist / art centre