September 2021

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Ngayurnangalkumili Ngurra (cannibal Country)

“Ngayurnangalku (cannibal beings) fighting. They all come in here, all meet up here. Ngayurnangalku coming from this way [North], go in here. Ngayurnangalku coming from this way [East], they go in. They come from this way [West], get in there. And from the South, get in there again. Fighting all the way. All the yirrkili (boomerang) flying everywhere. All get up.”

This painting depicts several sequences in the jukurrpa (dreaming) of Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment) Country and the lives of it’s inhabitants, the cannibal beings Ngayurnangalku. The lake is the white section in the centre of the painting, which is further quartered by the creeks that feed into it. Including Kupayiyura (Savory Creek). In these sections, other elements of the jukurrpa intersect with the fighting scenes. Top right includes the partarta (bush turkey) and walawurru (eagle hawk) jukurrpa North of the lake Country. Bottom right includes a reference to Turnturnpa, an old woman who is not permitted into the lake area. This section and the others are interspersed by the imagery of the Ngayurnangalku fighting among themselves, indicated by their weapons flying around everywhere.

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Kumpupirntily

““If they dig him up, anybody, blackfella, whitefellas they’ll get killed! Ngayurnangalku still there [in Kumpupirntily]. No people gotta go come to this place. If they go there it’s one way! There’s a cannibal there. Don’t come to this place- you might get killed! They gonna eat you for lunch! Don’t go, keep away!!

Some people paint a rockhole, only rockhole. Nothing. I got story. Jukurrpa. Full up….”

– Billy Yunkurra Atkins

This painting depicts Yunkurra’s Country; Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment) in the Canning Stock Route area. This large warla (salt lake) is one of the most sacred and dangerous sites in the far Western Desert. This is where the Ngayurnangalku (cannibal beings) live beneath the lake, surfacing only to feed on human flesh.

 

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Punmu Rockholes

“Punmu [community]- I went there when I was a young girl, a teenager with my mother and father before my mother passed. Big mob of people was there. No building, just little cubbie houses (bower shelters). Long time I been there.

These here are the waterholes around Punmu. In the middle is Rawa spring, Rawa means long time. On the right is Tuu Tuu, then Jila Jila, Wilarra and Yilyara up the top. That is my ngurra (home). We grew up in Punmu around all theses water holes. I still live here with my grand kids, same stories for all these places.”  

Marianne and her sister were brought up by their father, Martumili Artist Pukina Burton (dec.) She and her father would sit down together to paint, and Pukina would tells stories about his Country. Marianne is now often found painting in Newman and Punmu with her grandchildren, passing down stories about Country and culture.

Punmu is a community that sits on the edge of an important warla (lake) known as Lake Dora. The lake runs South into the area known as Karlamilyi (Rudall River National Park). Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were important sites for Martu people during the pujiman (traditional, bush-dwelling) era, with many important jukurrpa (dreaming stories) chronicling the creation of these landmarks.