July 2025

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Spinifex

“When I went back to County, I thought how beautiful the spinifex was. How the sun glazed against the spinifex. The County that I speak of is Jilukurru, my grandfather’s country.”

– Kathleen Maree Sorenson

Martu Country is dominated by striking permanent tali (sandhills) covered with spinifex, gums, and other trees and shrubs. Spinifex is a pale green, spiky grass that grows in clumps throughout the Central and Western Deserts of Australia. Some varieties yield edible seeds and another contains a resin. 

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Jilji

“This one near my countryside. It’s kayili (north) of my Country. Big one Jilji. Lots of tuwa (sandhills). My nana mili (denotes ownership) Country, mama mili, daddy mili Country. They walk around there, get kuwiyi (meat). The old people would cook ’em up! This a pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) place. I was a young girl with my nana and mama, walking around there. I been loose them. They finished.” 

– Yikartu Bumba

Jilji is a water source north of Wirnpa and in Juwaliny Country- Yikartu’s ngurra (home Country, camp). Her ngurra lies at the northern boundary of Martu Country, around the Percival Lakes region and further northward. Jilji is one of the water sources Yikartu would stop and camp at as a young woman. 

As described in her account, Yikartu moved around this area seasonally with her family, walking between water sources, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time 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 by name, location, quality and seasonal availability through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives.

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Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl)- Sylvia Wilson

“It’s pretty much the line of thought of my family. So that’s my daughter and then my granny- ‘Nan Nan’ they call her- and then my mum, SW. And that’s my nanna Lorna. It’s pretty much the line of where I’m from. That connection and family tree.”

– Sylvia Wilson

This work is one of a series by Sylvia Wilson entitled ‘Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl).’ As Sylvia explains, the work is both a depiction of, and attribute to, the women in her family heritage.

The Martu term for family, walytja, encapsulates a broader idea of relatedness that permeates every aspect of life. The Martu four-section kinship system determines a person as belonging to either the Purungu, Milangka, Panaka or Karrimarra skin group, and was created by the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) ancestors.

This system not only defines relationships, it also establishes a framework for expectations and obligations, and extends the importance of family far beyond mere blood or marriage ties. Family is not limited to blood connections; it encompasses all relationships within the entire community, forming a network of relationships that was crucial to survival during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era, and that remains fundamental to Martu life today. The kinship system allows everyone to know what expectations one person can have in relation to another, and means that familial terms and relationships are present between any two individuals, whether or not they are related by blood.

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Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl)- Sylvia Wilson

“It’s pretty much the line of thought of my family. So that’s my daughter and then my granny- ‘Nan Nan’ they call her- and then my mum, SW. And that’s my nanna Lorna. It’s pretty much the line of where I’m from. That connection and family tree.”

– Sylvia Wilson

This work is one of a series by Sylvia Wilson entitled ‘Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl).’ As Sylvia explains, the work is both a depiction of, and attribute to, the women in her family heritage.

The Martu term for family, walytja, encapsulates a broader idea of relatedness that permeates every aspect of life. The Martu four-section kinship system determines a person as belonging to either the Purungu, Milangka, Panaka or Karrimarra skin group, and was created by the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) ancestors.

This system not only defines relationships, it also establishes a framework for expectations and obligations, and extends the importance of family far beyond mere blood or marriage ties. Family is not limited to blood connections; it encompasses all relationships within the entire community, forming a network of relationships that was crucial to survival during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era, and that remains fundamental to Martu life today. The kinship system allows everyone to know what expectations one person can have in relation to another, and means that familial terms and relationships are present between any two individuals, whether or not they are related by blood.

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Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl)- Sylvia Wilson

“It’s pretty much the line of thought of my family. So that’s my daughter and then my granny- ‘Nan Nan’ they call her- and then my mum, SW. And that’s my nanna Lorna. It’s pretty much the line of where I’m from. That connection and family tree.”

– Sylvia Wilson

This work is one of a series by Sylvia Wilson entitled ‘Mum, The Boss, My Daughter and the Wanti (Woman, Girl).’ As Sylvia explains, the work is both a depiction of, and attribute to, the women in her family heritage.

The Martu term for family, walytja, encapsulates a broader idea of relatedness that permeates every aspect of life. The Martu four-section kinship system determines a person as belonging to either the Purungu, Milangka, Panaka or Karrimarra skin group, and was created by the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) ancestors.

This system not only defines relationships, it also establishes a framework for expectations and obligations, and extends the importance of family far beyond mere blood or marriage ties. Family is not limited to blood connections; it encompasses all relationships within the entire community, forming a network of relationships that was crucial to survival during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era, and that remains fundamental to Martu life today. The kinship system allows everyone to know what expectations one person can have in relation to another, and means that familial terms and relationships are present between any two individuals, whether or not they are related by blood.