September 2021

Untitled

“When Martu paint, it’s like a map. Martu draw story on the ground and on the canvas, and all the circle and line there are the hunting areas and different waters and tracks where people used to walk, and [some you] can’t cross, like boundaries. So nowadays you see a colourful painting and wonder what it is, but that’s how Martu tell story long ago. It’s not just a lovely painting, it’s a story and a songline and a history and everything that goes with it.” 

– Ngalangka Nola Taylor and Joshua Booth

This work portrays an area of Country that can be interpreted in multiple ways. Firstly, the image may be read as an aerial representation of a particular location known to the artist- either land that they or their family travelled, from the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era to now. During the pujiman 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. At this time, one’s survival depended on their intimate knowledge of the location of resources; thus physical elements of Country, such as sources of kapi (water), tali (sandhills), different varieties of warta (trees, vegetation), ngarrini (camps), and jina (tracks) are typically recorded with the use of a use of a system of iconographic forms universally shared across the desert. 

An additional layer of meaning in the work relates to more intangible concepts; life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire) are also often evident. A thousands of year old practice, fire burning continues to be carried out as both an aid for hunting and a means of land management today. As the Martu travelled and hunted they would burn tracts of land, ensuring plant and animal biodiversity and reducing the risk of unmanageable, spontaneous bush fires. The patchwork nature of regrowth is evident in many landscape works, with each of the five distinctive phases of fire burning visually described with respect to the cycle of burning and regrowth.  

Finally, metaphysical information relating to a location may also be recorded; Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives chronicle the creation of physical landmarks, and can be referenced through depictions of ceremonial sites, songlines, and markers left in the land. Very often, however, information relating to Jukurrpa is censored by omission, or alternatively painted over with dotted patterns.

Julapanja, Wirrkuja

“This Jilapunga rockhole. Kayili (east) from Yungara. Always kapi (water) there, pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling Martu) would drink from there. All bush-tucker there, womula (bush tomato), and minyarra (bush-onion). Barli [the artist’s daughter] was little one walking around that place. Pujiman time. 

This one rockhole, Julapanja, that’s a claypan, Wirrkuja. Water here, big one. This one we get water, then go another place, then another place. We’re walking around people you know?”

– Yikartu Bumba

This painting portrays physical elements of Martu Country, such as the dominant tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and water sources. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for Martu people during the pujiman era, with many important jukurrpa (dreamtime stories) chronicling the creation of these landmarks. In the past the Martu lived nomadically, moving from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.

Wantili, Canning Stock Route Area

“This is Wantili, this is my Country, Amy’s Country, everybody’s Country. . It’s the hill and all the kapi (water). This one big Country, big area, pubajba (hills) claypan- big one. Water been running, rolling, rolling from these hill here. Trees and spinifex all the marba (bush tucker) Amy was born here. All palya (good).”

– Lily Jatarr Long

Wantili is a large lyinji (clay pan) near Well 24 on the Canning Stock Route. The area is dominated by claypans surrounded by tuwa (sandhills), and following rain the claypans are filled with water. At that time the site becomes an important place for obtaining fresh water for drinking and bathing. Wantili is significant for the fact that at this site Kartujarra, Manyjilyjarra, Putujarra and Warnman people would all come together for ceremonies. Many jiwa (stones used by women for grinding seeds) from these times can still be found there today.

This painting is a collaborative by the three sisters, a work that portrays part of the Country where their family lived traditionally during the pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling) days. The Martu lived very nomadically moving from water source to water source hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances visiting some areas in the dry and some in the wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.

Tayiku

“Tayiku [is a] yinta (permanent water source), big one. In the desert, long way, Kakarra (East). I been walking round there when I was a big girl, after I been married. My daughter, Barley Bumba, he [she] been born there. 

Jila (snake) he been go in that hole, long time [ago], Dreamtime. He still there in that waterhole.”

 – Yikartu Bumba

This painting portrays physical elements of Martu Country, such as the dominant tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and water sources. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for Martu people during the pujiman (nomadic bush) era, with many important jukurrpa (dreamtime stories) chronicling the creation of these landmarks. In the past the Martu lived nomadically, moving from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.

Kulyakartu; Make a hole there, sing him, water come

Country, ngayu mili (my) country. Old people mili country; Martu, Nyangumarta, Warnman, Nyanatjarra people. That’s the area I been born now. Big area, juri (good) country. Plenty warta (shrubs, trees) there, plenty kapi (water). One windmill there too. No tuwa (sandhill) country, but oh plenty waterholes! Make a hole there, dig him own one, fill up with water. Make a hole there, sing him, water come. Have a drink. Lot of kapi. Own one gotta make a hole to bring water. Make a hole, dig a well. We know that kapi, where to find him. Old people know. My mummy and daddy been show me.

All the old people there, long time plenty. Walk all around there [when I was a] little one. When all people gone, everybody, I’m come last one. Looking around, looking for people. Nobody, nobody there. Father lose him Karlamily. Before [that] lose him mummy, one mummy been lose him Kurkangka in Telfer area. Then been lose him nyirti (youngest) mummy, Nullagine. Only me and [my young sister] Karnu. My family all gone to Jigalong, Marble Bar, Nullagine, all stations. They been working the station, working sheep, bullock, march them to Meekatharra, put them in the truck. I gotta go to family, gotta find them.

Kulijatukujarra

This work depicts a waterhole within the artists’ ngurra (home Country, camp), typically represented with circular forms. Waterholes are sites that require maintenance, including digging to increase flow, clearing out surrounding growth, and cleaning up after sullying by camels or cattle.

During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, knowledge of water sources was critical for survival, and today Martu Country is still defined in terms of the location and type of water. Each of the hundreds of claypans, rockholes, waterholes, soaks and springs found in the Martu desert homelands is known through real life experience and the recounting of jukurrpa (dreamtime) narratives by name, location, quality and seasonal availability. This encyclopedic knowledge extends even to the nature and movement of arterial waterways, and sustained Martu as they travelled across their Country, hunting and gathering, visiting family, and fulfilling ceremonial obligations. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water and the corresponding cycles of plant and animal life on which hunting and gathering bush tucker was reliant.