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Jilukurru (Killagurra Springs, Canning Stock Route, Well 17)

“We were there long time as kid, playing around. I been walking around here, young fella. There’s big water there, running water. Water there belongs to that jila (snake), he belongs to there. That jila makes you scared if you’re a stranger messing around in the water. The water will go right up, and you better get out from there!

Wati Kujarra (Two Goanna Men). Youngfella, poor bugger. [Here at] Jilukurru, sitting down this side you can see their ngarnkurrpa (beards) right in the hill there. That’s their main place. He been youngfella them two, chasing all the kangaroo. They gone away from Jilukurru Country, long way away, right to Roebourne, to that lake there. They not coming back, they gone one way.

This is my Country, good Country. Long way away on the Canning Stock Route. We used to stop there [and] go hunting. No road then, we walking around. No car, only camels.”

– Yunkurra Billy Atkins

Yunkurra’s Country encompasses some of the most important and dangerous sites in the Western Desert, including Jilukurru (Killagurra Springs, Canning Stock Route Well 17) and Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment). Jilukurru is a yinta (permanent spring) located in a complex of gorges and valleys yapurra (west) of Kumpupirntily. Jilukurru lies in the heart of Yunkurra’s ngurra (home Country, camp); he grew up in this area. This spring was an important site for meetings during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era. 

As Yunkurra describes, Jilukurru is also sacred for its relation to the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narrative of the Wati Kujarra. For this reason, access to the site is respectfully restricted. Wati Kujarra is one of the key foundational narratives for Western Desert people. Half men, half goanna, the Wati Kujarra were responsible for the creation of many land features in Martu Country and beyond as they travelled, hunted and burned Country together. Wati Kujarra is a ngurlu (sacred, taboo) men’s story, and much of the content is only shared with initiated men.

At Jilukurru, the Wati Kujarra lived for a time. Here they also trimmed their ngarnkurrpa. On one of the rocky headlands of the range system, the form of the two men can be seen, with their long beards rolling down the escarpment. After the Wati Kujarra left Jilukurru the site became home to an ancestral jila.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Billy Yunkurra Atkins

Language: Putijarra

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

"Some people paint a rockhole, only rockhole. Nothing. I got story. Jukurrpa (Dreaming), full up.”

 - Yunkurra Billy Atkins

 

Yunkurra is a Putijarra man and senior custodian of the area surrounding Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment), at the southern end of Martu Country. He was born in the early 1940’s at Palatji (Palarji, Weld Springs, Canning Stock Route Well 9), and is the eldest brother of fellow Martumili Artist Miriam Atkins. Yunkurra grew up around Wiluna, and narrowly avoided being taken away by missionaries as a child. Subsequently he grew up with his elders, learning about culture and Country in his traditional lands, including Kumpupirntily, Kupayura (Savory Creek) and Jilukurru (Killagurra Springs, Canning Stock Route Well 17).

Yunkurra lived a pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) lifestyle on his “Country, good Country... We used to stop there [and] go hunting. No road then, we walking around. No car, only camels” (Yukurra Billy Atkins). Eventually, as a ‘young fella’ he, like most other Martu at the time, began working on pastoral stations around the Pilbara, ‘mustering bullock, sheep too.’ In later life Yunkurra relocated to Jigalong Aboriginal community, closer to his home Country. 

Yunkurra began painting and carving independently in the early 2000s, earlier than most Martu artists. He has played a central role in the development of painting practice in the Martu communities, and as a senior artist and creative innovator he has made works in many mediums. As an individual Yunkurra was instrumental in the establishment of Martumili Artists. 

Yunkurra’s Country encompasses some of the most sacred and dangerous sites in the Western Desert; Kumpupirntily and Jilukurru. The Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories and beings associated with these sites, including the ancestral Ngayurnangalku (cannibal beings) and Wati Kujarra (Two Goanna Men), form the subject for the majority of Yunkurra’s copious body of work. An unashamedly political artist, Yunkurra has used his work as a platform to staunchly oppose the development of mining interests in the Kumpupirntily area, declaring “Ngayurnangalku still there. They’re still alive. Don't go, keep away! I been block him, tell all the miners to keep away. Cannibal gonna come out of the lake, kill you, knock you on the head and have a feed. If they dig him up, anybody, blackfella, whitefella, they’ll get killed! They’ll have a good feed!” (Yunkurra Billy Atkins).

Yunkurra is known for his distinctive imagery, melding a naive Western style with impossibly disorienting multiple perspectives to explore the simultaneous beauty and danger of his Country, rich with Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives and beings. Yunkurra's work was selected for the 2003 and 2017 Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, and in 2017 he was the recipient of the Hedland Art Award. He has held regular solo exhibitions, and his work has been acquired by The National Gallery of Australia. Yunkurra's collaborative animation, Cannibal Story, has also screened in a number of highly celebrated film festivals and screen events around the globe. 

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