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Lalapakujarra

“This painting shows Karlamilyi River (Rudall River) and [the] yinta (permanent spring), Lalapakujarra. This is our father’s name; it is his Country. This Country has a lot of stories. I asked my dad and grandfathers what was the stuff coming out of the tree here. I was a silly kid then. They used to get waranu (sugarbag, lerp), fall down out of the tree, the old people swept it up, yandied (winnowed) it and cooked it up. The mumanl (god) gave it to the old people in the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) days, at what is now Christmas time.”

 – Sisters Jatarr Lily Long and Wurta Amy French

Lalapakujarra is a creek located along the Karlamilyi River. According to two of the central Martu Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives, the Karlamilyi River and its surrounds were created by the ancestral beings Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes) and the Wati Kujarra (Two Goanna Men) as they travelled across the lands.

Lalapakujarra is particularly significant for sisters Wurta and Jatarr, as this site is the birthplace for their father, and through him part of their ngurra (home Country, camp). The Western Desert term ‘ngurra’ is hugely versatile in application. Broadly denoting birthplace and belonging, ngurra can refer to a body of water, a camp site, a large area of Country, or even a modern house. People identify with their ngurra in terms of specific rights and responsibilities, and the possession of intimate knowledge of the physical and cultural properties of one’s Country. This knowledge is traditionally passed intergenerationally through family connections. Painting ngurra, and in so doing sharing the Jukurrpa stories and physical characteristics of that place, has today become an important means of cultural maintenance. Physical maintenance of one’s ngurra, like cultural maintenance, ensures a site’s wellbeing, and is a responsibility of the people belonging to that area.

Also referred to in Wurta and Jatarr’s account of the Lalapakujarra area is the collection of a type of botanical gum that was yandied, cooked and then eaten. 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. 

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Lily Jatarr Long

Language: Ngarnijarra, Warnman

Community: Irrungadji (Nullagine)

Biography:

“This Karlamilyi area, big land. That’s a ngurra (home Country, camp) belonging to our old people, Warnman people. We talk for our land, our jila (snake). I grew up in this Country, my Country. This land belongs to our father. In pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) days I walked around here, used to walk up and down tuwa (sandhill) and back to the main camp belonging to Martu. We are Warnman ladies, painting Kintyre and Karlamilyi. We can share this Country.”

 - Sisters Wurta Amy French and Jatarr Lily Long

 

Jatarr Lily Long is a Warnman woman and senior custodian for Karlamilyi (Rudall River) Country. She was born in the late 1930s at Jatarrngara, a water source on the Karlamilyi River from which her name is derived. Jatarr is the sister of fellow artists Helen Dale Samson and the late Wurta Amy French. Her father was a drover who attempted, unsuccessfully, to ‘steal’ Jatarr’s mother and take her back to the Kimberley region. 

Jatarr grew up with her family in the area surrounding Tiwa (Canning Stock Route Well 26), a water source located east of Parnngurr Aboriginal Community and just west of a culturally significant group of hills called Partujarrapirri. Her family returned to the Karlamily region for a time, moving between camps located all along the Karlamily River and up to the large salt lake, Nyayartakujarra (Lake Dora). In the late 1940’s her family left Karlamily and travelled on foot for more than 200 kilometres to Jigalong Mission, where a supply of rationed food and water was assured. There they were reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert. 

At Jigalong, Jatarr lived in a dormitory with her two sisters and went to school. Later, she worked as a cook on various pastoral stations in the Pilbara and mined for tin and other minerals with a yandy (dish used for winnowing seed). Eventually, Jatarr relocated Irrungadji Aboriginal community, just outside of Nullagine, where she continues to live with her sister Wurta, children and grandchildren.

Today Jatarr lives at Irrungadji Community near Nullagine with her children and grandchildren. As an artist, she has always worked with her sisters at her side, and they have frequently collaborated on larger works. In her paintings, Jatarr depicts her ngurra (home Country, camp) and its animals, waterholes, and Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories. She uses her art as a means of transferring cultural knowledge to her children and grandchildren and as a political platform, protecting her Country from mining and other disruptions. Jatarr is known for her soft pastel palettes and dreamy landscapes, which blend aerial and frontal perspectives. Her work has been widely exhibited in Australia and internationally, and is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia, and National Museum of Australia.

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