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Punmu

“This area here is our Country. It’s our Country right here. We returned to our Country with a Toyota and a grader that made the road. A grader right up to here. Punmu is a good place. It’s a happy place to live. My spirit feels good living here. In pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) time we lived in this area now. I’m happy with this life now, happy because I feel grounded by my Country. It’s important to hold onto the legacy of the ancestors. It’s up to the young people to carry it on now. For the ancestors past and present.”

– Minyawe Miller as translated by Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa

 

Punmu refers to a region and an Aboriginal community within its vicinity, located 670km North-East of Newman. Created during the return to Country movement of the 1980s, with the recognition of Martu land rights and native title, the community was named after a nearby Jukurrpa (Dreaming) story.

Punmu Aboriginal community sits on the edge of a large salt lake known as Nyayartakujarra, or Lake Dora. The lake runs south into Karlamilyi River (Rudall River). Surrounding Punmu are numerous fresh water soaks and the red tali (sandhills) typical of the area. The most frequently visited yinta (permanent springs) around Punmu include Wirlarra, Rawa, Yilyara, Jila-jila and Tuu-tuu.

The Country around Punmu features in several Jukurrpa stories. Of particular importance is the story of the Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes), one of the key Jukurrpa narratives for the Martu. Though the story belongs to Warnman people, it is shared across the Western Desert with several other language groups. The narrative centres on the travels of two snakes as they are pursued by the Niminjarra, spiritual ancestors of the Warnman people. 

Before transforming themselves into snakes, the Jila Kujarra were young brothers. As snakes, they began travelling home to their mother, but were intercepted by the Niminjarra, who tracked the Jila Kujarra to Paji, east of Nyayartakujarra (Lake Dora). Though the Jila Kujarra eluded their pursuers here by escaping under the lake at Paji, they were soon after speared and injured by two Pukurti (initiates with bundled hair) at Nyayartakujarra, who returned with the Niminjarra to cook the snakes at the site of Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment). As the Niminjarra cut down the length of the Jila Kujarra, the snake’s bladders were pierced, causing an explosion of scalding hot urine in which the Niminjarra all perished and became black rocks at the site. The spirits of the Jila Kujarra returned to their mother at Nyayartakujarra, where the mother and her sons entered the ground below Nyayartakujarra and remain to this day.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Dianne Marney

Biography:

“I was born in Strelley and, yeah, we was there until we come to Punmu when I was, might be, 3,4, 5 years old. I grew up here in Punmu, go to school here. First we was at Yilyara [one of several frequently visited yinta (permanent springs) located in the Country immediately surrounding Punmu Aboriginal community] There was two house there then. I was all the time living with my mum, Mulyatingki [Marney].

When I was maybe 11 we was staying at Bidyadanga [a community located on the Kimberley coast in Western Australia] for a little while- me and Mulyatingki. She had a brother there, but he passed away. My big sister, Morag Chapman, she had a husband in Bidyadanga too. Mulyatingki, she didn’t want to stay there in Bidyadanga, she wanted to come back to Punmu, so we came back. I lived in Punmu until I had kids and moved to Kalgoorlie, moved to Jameson Range.

I was painting before, when the old people was alive, ngaru (poor things), when they first started painting [in 2006, when Martumili Artists was established]. I was helping my mum when I was going to school. When they [the artists] first started, I was sitting down and helping mum a little bit. I was doing it because my mother paint, paint, always doing painting, and I just do it too. Mulyatingki told me to paint, and the old girl [Mulyatingki’s younger sister] too.

I didn’t paint again until I came back to Punmu. But I’m happy here! Happy because my kids are here. I was too long away, in Kalgoorlie, and I feel homesick- I want to come back to Punmu and do a bit of painting. And my mum and brother were too sick, I come back to be with them.

I paint about my Country, all around Punmu, and my mum’s Country. Mulyatingki told me about how to do [paint] her country, Nyinyiri Country, where she born. I never been there, I have to go there one day. Mum told me in the Martu way, how she talk, she told me to do all the warla (lake, claypan), sandhills and waterholes. She told me do that. I get an idea from mum, she tell me and I think and I paint it. I see her painting, what she do, and when I come back home I think in my mind how she do. I’m proud of her and I’m proud of painting where I grew up.

Here in Punmu I paint with other people now, Gladys [Bidu] and Yikartu [Bumba]. We have a story and a laugh. It’s good, and making me happy. [When I paint] I just do what I like to do. I see the colours coming in the sandhill- I do it red, I do it brown. Sandhill and spinifex and lake and all the flowers and trees all mixed.

Gladys and Yikartu, they tell me, talk to me about painting. The old girl [Mulyatingki’s youngest sister], she would tell me and mum tell me too. One day when mum comes I’ll sit with her and paint- I might get a different idea! My daughter [Shasharnie Lane] and son [Otis Lane] paint now too.

I just done another painting, ‘Jila Jila rockhole’. I done it a bit different. I was looking at the colours on the sand and the rock when the sun was going down. I’m learning.

[Besides painting] I like to make baskets. I learned by my mum and my sister Morag too. I been learn by them when I was a bit younger, might be about twenty years old. Now I’m fourty four and I can do really good, big baskets.

I also like to go hunting too, and I like to sing a Martu song for the kids here in Punmu. I was singing at the school for the little jijis (children), singing the songs. I help the jijis with KJ [Martu organisation ‘Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa’ runs a ‘Family’ program in addition to Social, Culture and Country programs. Collectively these Martu led programs work to “teach young people about their culture and look after country.”]

 - Dianne Marney

 

Diane Marney, daughter of the renowned artist Mulyatingki Marney, first learned to paint and weave baskets alongside her mother and aunt during the early days of the Martumili Artists, nearly twenty years ago. After spending many years in the Kalgoorlie region as a young woman, Diane has recently returned to both her artistic roots and her home Country, Punmu.

 

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