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Bush Tucker

Depicted in this work are traditional types of bush tucker, their habitats, and their related hunting and gathering methods. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. Whilst desert life has moved away from mobile hunter-gatherer subsistence throughout the course of the twentieth century, bush tucker continues to be a significant component of the modern Martu diet. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally. Though hunting and gathering implements have been modernised, methods of harvesting, tracking and the use of fire burning to drive animals from their retreats are still commonly practiced today. 

Typically, animals hunted for their kuwiyi (meat) include kirti-kirti (euro kangaroo) and marlu (plains kangaroo), parnajarrpa (sand goanna), kipara (Australian bustard, bush turkey) and karlaya (emu). Lunki (witchetty grub) and wuukurta (honey ants) are dug from tree and bush trunks, or from underground nests. Popular mayi (plant food) includes minyarra (bush onion), collected from small, grass like plants; root vegetables dug from underground such as kulyu and mata (types of bush potato); and seeds such as kalaru (samphire, salt bush), yuwinyji, and marnkalpa (spinifex species). Jawirli (quondong), wamurla (bush tomatoes), jinyjiwirrily (wild gooseberry), ngaputa (melon), and karlkula (bush banana) are some of the most popular bush fruits. These are often collected in the wantajarra (cool season) and tuulpara (spring) months, along with juri (sweet) botanical gums and wama (nectar), obtained from various plant species. 

Traditional tools used for hunting and gathering bush tucker were carved from wanari (mulga), mulunturu (desert oak), yurungkura (river red gum) and mijarrpa (bloodwoods), and included kurlata (spears), jurna (hitting stick), karli (boomerangs), wana (digging-sticks), piti (timber bowls used for carrying food and water), and jiwa (grinding stones for grinding seeds into flour). While carved objects retain enormous social and ceremonial importance in Martu life, they are no longer used for hunting and gathering.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Timille Whitby

Biography:

 

I was born in Geraldton and stayed there for a couple of years. We moved to Perth, then my mum got a job with my dad to be dorm parents for the boys at Karalundi Aboriginal Education Centre, so we moved there. My mum, she was a Seventh Day Adventist, see? My dad would drive out to the communities like Jigalong, he’d go to the Warburton Ranges, Linster, Leonora and Wiluna to pick up the kids and bring them back to Karlundi for their schooling. Me and my brothers and two sisters grew up with those boys like they were our own brothers. We all went to school together and would take them on camps together. We’d take them back home for holidays too. I went with my dad on a couple of the trips.

 

I learnt a lot in my young days there. We used to go digging for honey ants, bush sweet potato, bardi, and parngarra with the elder ladies. They taught me how to make baskets too, with fishing wire and other bits.

 

After we grew up we moved back to Geraldton and I had my daughter, who was born premature. We decided to move toward the heat to help ope up my daughter’s lungs, so we went back up to Port Hedland and then Newman. My mum fell in love with Newman because it was close to the bush life, and because my uncle Joshua Booth and other family members lived there. My mum opened up all the houses at the back of the hospital in Newman for the FIFO doctors, and they named a street after her. She liked to help all the Aboriginal people.

 

Art is something for me to do. I love art, and I’m happy they opened up the new Martumili centre. Art is in our background and in my family, it’s in my blood. I always feel so relaxed once I’m painting.

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