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Published by CompNet Systems on October 24, 2025

Ladies Gathering

“These are the ladies gathering and learning [teaching] young girls. We learn from the oldest and pass it down to the younger generation. These are the ladies in the scrub and around are the dry claypans.

We take them out and show the younger girls to hunt and prepare food and bush medicine, to make fire, and collect bush tucker. We show them how to find water, where to walk for the waterhole. We learn them to paint and collect weaving grass for the elders to weave.”

– Roxanne Anderson

In this artwork Roxanne illustrated the transfer of knowledge from elders to younger Martu generations. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, Martu would traverse vast distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. Although desert life has moved away from mobile hunter-gatherer subsistence throughout the course of the twentieth century, bush tucker remains a significant component of the modern Martu diet and continues to play a crucial role in passing down cultural knowledge.

While 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.

Visual arts also play a vital role in preserving Martu culture. Younger Martu artists typically begin painting with their parents, grandparents and extended family, creating an organic learning process that encompasses not only painting techniques but also knowledge of specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, bush tucker and Jukurrpa (Dreaming).

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Marlene Anderson

Language: Manyjilyjarra

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

“My mother and father were from Wiluna area. I was born out in the desert, Melrose Station near Wiluna. My mum and dad were working on the station there then. I did my schooling there, but I moved to Jigalong as a young girl, then had my first child there. I’ve got three children and a step son too.

[I started painting ] in Jigalong, one day at that little art shed there when Gabrielle [Sullivan, inaugural manager of Martumili Artists] was still the manager. When I shift to Newman I started painting in that old centre sometimes.

One day at this new [art centre] building I just started coming in with Anya [Judith Samson]. She was giving me a little bit of advice, saying I should come in and do something! I just started doing it then, doing it more and more. It’s good to paint. I was looking at other people that paint, seeing their paintings get sold, so I thought “Oh yeah, I’ll start then!” It’s fun. I couldn’t stop painting now, I’m painting every day!

I tried every painting style. Now I found this different way to paint, doing the dot paintings, and this is the one I like most. It’s relaxing! I use a long stick. I paint all the different colours I see out in Country. I like to paint about all the bush foods and wildflowers. We go out getting honey ants and bush potatoes from the ground and bush bananas on a tree, hunting for goanna.

I work with KJ [local ranger group, Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa), take the kids out Country, out in the bush. ‘Kids on Country’ we call it. It helps them to go out Country. When they go out and see the countryside and the bush, makes them feel a bit happy and like they want to go out more and more. I help take them out to track a goanna, take them right up to the hole and they dig it out. Any kids can come- like eight (years), ten, twelve, fourteen… We work with the ones who wander around in Newman, who aren’t going to school. Some kids don’t like going to school- their parents send them to school but they go around another way. It’s important for them to learn the traditions from their old people so they can be proud of themselves. I paint about the same things they learn out on Country; going and getting the honey ants, goanna, bush tomatoes and bush berries. I also do patrol at night with the women’s shelter to help the kids, help [their] families. They need someone like me to go out and help them and take them home.

I’ve had my painting in the gallery here in Newman. That felt good to see my painting on the wall. I feel happy and proud when someone buys one of my paintings.”

- Marlene Anderson

Marlene Anderson has painted with Martumili Artists for over a decade, beginning at a 2010 workshop in the Jigalong art shed. Today she is one of Martumili’s core artists, painting daily from her home or the Newman studio. Her style is marked by an intuitive approach to composition, colour palettes, and variation in mark making to create bold and dynamic works. In 2023, her work was featured in Revealed: New and Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, and in 2025 she was a finalist in the prestigious Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA). Through painting and her work with Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa’s 'Kids on Country' program, Marlene fosters pride and connection to Country for future generations.

© the artist / art centre