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Puntawarri

“We camped here, me, my husband, my kids, not far from Jigalong. The old people used to live here and work here. The road goes from Jigalong, past Puntawarri, and then [continues to] the Canning Stock Route. There is a waterhole here where the old bush people used to go to in the pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling) days while they were still walking around that Country.”

 – Dadda Samson 

Puntawarri is an important cultural area located on the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route and east of the Jigalong Mission (now Jigalong Aboriginal community), where Dadda continues to live today. It is also the site of a now abandoned community, waterhole, creek and lake. Puntawarri’s close proximity to Jigalong Mission made it a popular site for Martu to visit during the ‘mission days’. While growing up at Jigalong Mission in the 1960’s, Dadda would return to Puntawarri every weekend to hunt and camp. 

For many Martu, like Dadda and her family, Jigalong Mission was the site where their pujiman lifestyle came to an end from the late 1940s as they transitioned to a life as stockmen and women working in cattle stations in the Pilbara region and beyond. In the wake of the extreme and prolonged drought of the 1960s, the last of the remaining pujimanpa (desert dwellers) were forced to move to missions like Jigalong, where a supply of food and water was assured. There, many Martu were reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert.

The waterhole at Puntawarri is said to be populated by several kinds of ancestral jila (snakes), however the site is best known for its association with the Ngayurnangalku, fearsome ancestral cannibal beings. During the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) the Ngayurnangalku came together from all over the desert, first stopping near Puntawarri on their travels to Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment). At Kumpupirntily, they had a big meeting to debate whether or not they would continue to live as cannibals, and eventually came to the decision to stop eating people. That night, a female baby cannibal was born to the eastern Ngayurnangalku on the red sandhills at Puntawarri, where she continues to live today as the ‘big mummy’ Ngayurnangalku. Following protocol, the baby also had to be consulted by the group. She determined that the Ngayurnangalku should continue to eat people. Her decision divided the group, and from this point the group from the east continued to live as ‘bad’ cannibals at Kumpupirntily, while the group from the west became ‘good’, thereafter consuming only animals.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Dadda Samson

Language: Kartujarra

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

Dadda was a Kartujarra woman and a senior custodian of the lands surrounding Jigalong. She was born around 1933 at a windmill near Old Jigalong, a ration depot that was situated on the Rabbit Proof Fence preceding the establishment of Jigalong Mission. Before Dadda was born, her parents and brothers lived in the Country around Jilukurru (Killagurra Spring, Canning Stock Route Well 17). She walked around this Country with her mother, father and three brothers, visiting sites including Kumpu, Mungkulu, Pinpi (Durba Springs), Pulyapulya (Sunday Well), and Puntawarri. 

When Dadda was very young her father first heard that there were rations at Jigalong and took his family there for flour, tea and sugar. In the late 1930’s, when droving had intensified along the Canning Stock Route, Dadda’s family left the desert and walked to Jigalong Mission. There they met up with the Samson, Kelly, Jeffries, Atkins, Sammy and Kadibil families who are also all Kartujarra people. Dadda went to school at the mission for a short time and was taught by Mrs Battye, Jigalong's first school teacher. Later, she worked on stations including Sylvania Station with her first husband, a camel handler, and then with her second husband, an excellent horseman, rancher, and cattle drover; both of whom she has outlived. Until her death Dadda continued to live at Jigalong, with her children and many grandchildren, as a highly respected senior of the community.

Dadda was one of the pioneering painters at Martumili Artists. As she set about her earliest works, Dadda immersed herself in the songs that describe the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) of the Country that she authoritatively represents. Her tireless exploration of colour and form, however, reflects her increasing engagement with the qualities of paint and canvas themselves. Dadda’s technique swings between lusciously applying brightly coloured paint to the canvas and using translucent washes to produce watercolour-like qualities. She worked delicately across the surfaces of linens and canvasses, revealing the textures of various substrates. Subtle, interlaced roundels remain a consistent feature throughout her explorations of light, form and space. Many of her paintings have a hovering, vibrating quality that is thoroughly grounded in Country, Jukurrpa and history, even while it challenges stereotypes of ‘traditional’ desert paintings.

Dadda has exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, and her work has been acquired by several major institutions in Australia including The National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. 

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