July 2025

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Kulyakartu

“Kulyakartu, with the sand dunes and the plants, the grass. The season is cold time, after rain, after the rain when it gets green and the different types of grass grow. We are painting about Kulyakartu, I am painting with nana (Nola), the landscape and the colours after the rain. There’s alot of the different plants, especially that one type of grass called yuwinyji that you grind. You take the seed of the grass for the damper.”

– Jenny Butt


“This grass, you take and you do it with the rock, you grind it. You make the seed drop and you clean it up and grind it, you shake it and you make damper. We lived on that, with our families. My nana and my mum, they used to collect that, and then they get the rock, do it on the floor, hard one like this. Tastes nice, Juri (beautiful), they make it into damper. Its nice, soft one. They used to go out and get it, my Nana used to do it, and my mum, while my dad goes out hunting, nyarru.”

– Nola Taylor


Kulyakartu is a large area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly flat grass Country, and is known as a good hunting area. 

The traditional lands of the Martu people encompass the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia, an enormous tract dominated by distinctive red tali, or tuwa (sandhills). These sandhills present an unforgiving landscape; sparse vegetation covers a seemingly never ending expanse of dunes, and yet these lands and the location of resources within them was known intimately by its pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) inhabitants.

Depicted in this work are traditional types of edible seeds that were gathered during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period. At this time 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. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally.

Popular plants from which seeds can be harvested include kalaru (samphire, salt bush), yuwinyji and marnkalpa (spinifex species). jiwa were grinding stones for grinding seeds into flour.

 

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Kulyakartu

“Kulyakartu, with the sand dunes and the plants, the grass. The season is cold time, after rain, after the rain when it gets green and the different types of grass grow. We are painting about Kulyakartu, I am painting with nana (Nola), the landscape and the colours after the rain. There’s alot of the different plants, especially that one type of grass called yuwinyji that you grind. You take the seed of the grass for the damper.”

– Jenny Butt


“This grass, you take and you do it with the rock, you grind it. You make the seed drop and you clean it up and grind it, you shake it and you make damper. We lived on that, with our families. My nana and my mum, they used to collect that, and then they get the rock, do it on the floor, hard one like this. Tastes nice, Juri (beautiful), they make it into damper. Its nice, soft one. They used to go out and get it, my Nana used to do it, and my mum, while my dad goes out hunting, nyarru.”

– Nola Taylor


Kulyakartu is a large area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly flat grass Country, and is known as a good hunting area. 

The traditional lands of the Martu people encompass the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia, an enormous tract dominated by distinctive red tali, or tuwa (sandhills). These sandhills present an unforgiving landscape; sparse vegetation covers a seemingly never ending expanse of dunes, and yet these lands and the location of resources within them was known intimately by its pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) inhabitants.

Depicted in this work are traditional types of edible seeds that were gathered during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period. At this time 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. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally.

Popular plants from which seeds can be harvested include kalaru (samphire, salt bush), yuwinyji and marnkalpa (spinifex species). jiwa were grinding stones for grinding seeds into flour.

 

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Untitled

 

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.

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Kulyakartu

“Kulyakartu, with the sand dunes and the plants, the grass. The season is cold time, after rain, after the rain when it gets green and the different types of grass grow. We are painting about Kulyakartu, I am painting with nana (Nola), the landscape and the colours after the rain. There’s alot of the different plants, especially that one type of grass called yuwinyji that you grind. You take the seed of the grass for the damper.”

– Jenny Butt


“This grass, you take and you do it with the rock, you grind it. You make the seed drop and you clean it up and grind it, you shake it and you make damper. We lived on that, with our families. My nana and my mum, they used to collect that, and then they get the rock, do it on the floor, hard one like this. Tastes nice, Juri (beautiful), they make it into damper. Its nice, soft one. They used to go out and get it, my Nana used to do it, and my mum, while my dad goes out hunting, nyarru.”

– Nola Taylor


Kulyakartu is a large area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly flat grass Country, and is known as a good hunting area. 

The traditional lands of the Martu people encompass the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia, an enormous tract dominated by distinctive red tali, or tuwa (sandhills). These sandhills present an unforgiving landscape; sparse vegetation covers a seemingly never ending expanse of dunes, and yet these lands and the location of resources within them was known intimately by its pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) inhabitants.

Depicted in this work are traditional types of edible seeds that were gathered during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period. At this time 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. Hunting and gathering bush tucker remains equally valuable as an important cultural practice that is passed on intergenerationally.

Popular plants from which seeds can be harvested include kalaru (samphire, salt bush), yuwinyji and marnkalpa (spinifex species). jiwa were grinding stones for grinding seeds into flour.

 

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Nyurnma

“This painting is about Nyurnma, Kulyakartu country, burnt area. In the time of the cold season, time for hunting. Nyurnma we call it, burnt country.”

“In my grandfathers country they have spinifex, and they burn it, it was an everyday thing for our old people. They used to clean the land, burn, hunt for bushtucker, for goanna, for all bush food. This painting is part of Tayiku, in Kulyakartu area, my grandfathers country. waru is a main thing for Martu people, they burn for new growth, for the hunting and for maintaining the country, cleaning the country where they walk, Waru is a big part of our culture, its been going on for generations.

Through my painting I like to be creative, when I hear stories about people in the bush, families walking, lighting with the firestick and burning the way where they are travelling. It’s a big part of my life as a Martu, we can join our part with what they were doing. Through my art I create my own style of painting, with Waru”

– Derrick Butt 

 

This work portrays an area of Derrick’s ngurra (home Country, camp) represented aerially. It depicts the practice of fire burning as it continues to be used today through the Martu homelands. Over thousands of years, as Martu travelled and hunted on foot they would burn tracts of land, using waru (fire) as a means to assist with hunting and to encourage regenerative growth. 

Targeted waru is an important tool in animal tracking. Small burns are lit to clear vegetation, expose burrows, and to allow for access to walk and track readily in exposed sands. Fires are typically burnt during cooler weather in small, controlled areas, reducing the risk of unmanageable, spontaneous bush fires whilst simultaneously providing diverse regenerating habitats. Remaining is a defined mosaic fire scar pattern in the land, across tali (sand dunes), linyji (clay pans), parulyukurru (spinifex country) and pila (sandy plains). This patterning is clearly visible from an aerial perspective, and becomes even more defined as new growth emerges. 

The patchwork nature of regrowth is aligned with the Martu cycle of burning and regrowth and its five distinct phases. First is nyurnma (freshly burnt Country), followed after the rains by waru-waru, when young, bright green plants start to grow. Nyukura occurs between one and three years after burning, when plants have matured and are fruiting and seeding. Manguu is four to six years post burning, when spinifex has matured to the point that it can be burned once again. Finally, kunarka signifies the time when spinifex and other plant species have become old growth, and pose a risk of destructive bushfires.

Kulyakartu is a large area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly flat grass Country, and is known as a good hunting area. In particular, parnajarrpa (goanna), wild cats, and lunki (witchetty grub) are found in abundance here. In the wantajarra (wet season) the dry lakes in the region fill with water.