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Mamajarra

 Mamajarra is a spring and soak located within Kupayura (Kupayiyura, Savory Creek), a creek located between the Little Sandy and Gibson deserts of Western Australia. Kupayura drains into the south western end of the large salt lake, Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment). 

Both Mamajarra and Kupayura feature in the Martu Ngayurnangalku (ancestral cannibal beings) Jukurrpa (Dreaming). The Ngayurnangalku are said to resemble people in their appearance, except for their fangs and long curved knife like fingernails they use to catch and hold their human victims. These beings continue to live beneath the crust of Kumpupirntily lake in an underground world lit by their own sun, and surface only to feed on human flesh. The Ngayurnangalku stopped at Mamajarra and Kupayura as they journeyed to Kumpupirntily for an important meeting during the Jukurrpa. Between Kupayura and through to Kumpupirntily they created many soaks, urinating along the way. Despite their origins, these soaks are sources of good drinking water.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Albert Pilkington

Language: Putijarra

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

“I was born in Kununoppin, in the wheatbelt. Left school when I was 15 and worked on cattle stations for 16 years, in the Pilbara, up through the Kimberleys, and back. My Grandfather is from east of Jigalong he didn’t see a whitefella until he was 18.
I started painting out of curiosity at first, and when I finished my first one I realised that I really liked doing it. I get a lot of inspiration from my love for country. I can’t get enough of it sometimes. I’ll be sitting at home and just get up in the car for a cruise, just to see the country. Now I’m up here I like to use earthy colours, colours of country. A lot of my painting is from memory. Been out here many times. Spent a lot of time out on this country. When I come back I want to pull up on the boundary and roll in the dirt. Walk outside, look around, get the colours, I love the colours.”
- Albert Pilkington

Albert is a Milankga man who speaks Martu Wangka. He was born in Kununoppin, but grew up in Geraldton where he lived with his mother and father. His mother Doris Pilkington was born in Belfour Downs Station and wrote the novel Follow the Rabbit-Proof Fence which the 2002 film Rabbit-Proof Fence was based on.
After leaving school at the age of 15 Albert worked on cattle stations in the north of Western Australia for the next 16 years. He then returned to school as a mature age student, completing a Bachelor of Science at Murdoch University, and his Masters of Applied Epidemiology at the Australian National University in Canberra.

Today Albert lives in Newman with his daughter - one of his six children.
While Albert has only recently begun painting he has found an immediate love for it and is deeply inspired by the colours of his country. When he is not painting, he loves to horse riding or hunting for bush tucker. Bush turkey and goanna are his favourite.

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