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Punmu

“I lived with my mother and father around Punmu.”

 – Mulyatingki Marney

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 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.

Mulyatingki grew up in and travelled through this Country as a young girl with her family. This is her grandfather’s ngurra (home Country, camp). Following the passing of their parents, sisters Mayiwalku, Mulyatingki and Nyanjilpayi continued to travel through this region for several years, occasionally meeting with other family groups.

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: Mulyatingki Marney

Language: Manyjilyjarra

Community: Punmu

Biography:

Mulyatingki is a Manyjilyjarra woman, born in the early 1940’s at Nyinyiri, a small soak yulparirra (south) of Juntu-juntu (Canning Stock Route Well 30). She is the middle sister of senior Martumili Artists Nyanjilpayi (Ngarnjapayi) Nancy Chapman and Mayiwalku May Chapman. Her family’s Country extends across the Punmu, Pangkapirni (Bungabindi Well), Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) and Karlamilyi (Rudall River) regions. Mulyatingki grew up in Karlamilyi, but following the death of her parents, she and her sisters travelled alone in the desert between Punmu and Kunawarritji for a time, occasionally meeting and travelling with other family groups.

 

The young sisters had travelled south into the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region when they first encountered whitefellas. They saw a plane flying overhead and, petrified, hid under spinifex grass until the plane had passed. Subsequent to the construction of the Canning Stock Route in 1910, the family increasingly came into contact with Europeans and Martu working as cattle drovers along the route. Gradually men from Mulyatingki’s family began to work seasonally at stations around Jigalong, but as a family group they remained living in the desert long after most Martu had moved to Jigalong Mission. Finally, in 1966, following a prolonged and severe drought, Mulyatingki and her sisters decided to walk to Balfour Downs, where they were collected by Jigalong Mission staff. At the mission, Mulyatingki was given the whitefella name "Jeannie." She lived there for many years before moving with her three children and sister Nyanjilpayi to Punmu Aboriginal community in 1982. Today Mulyatingki lives between Punmu and Port Hedland.

 

Mulyatingki was one of Martumili’s pioneering artists. She has developed a strong reputation for her paintings, often comprised of a bold, gestural compositional base overlayed with dots and smaller brushstrokes that seem to vibrate with energy and movement. Mulyatingki’s artworks depict her ngurra (home Country, camp); the Country she walked as a young woman, its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. Her work has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, and is part of collections at the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Victoria, and the Royal Collection of Her Royal Highness Queen Elizabeth II.

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