January 2026

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Manyawok (Cheeky Yam)

This design depicts the cheeky yam, which is found on the artist’s country, near the outstation of Mumeka in central Arnhem Land. Yams are an important bush food that are collected during the wet season.

Unlike other yams that can be eaten roasted, the cheeky yam can be poisonous if not properly prepared. The preparation process of the yam traditionally takes two days. Firstly, the yams are dug up with a digging stick and boiled over a fire. They are then peeled and sliced into thin strips, which are placed in a special dillybag woven by women from pandanus leaves. The yam-laden dillybag is then strung from an overhanging branch into a river, so the bag just touches the flowing fresh water. The cheeky yams are left like this overnight to allow the running water to remove the toxins. The next morning, people return and collect the dillybag, and leave the yam pieces in full sunlight to dry out. Finally, when the yam pieces have dried in the sun for a day, they are ready to eat.

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Wati Kutjarra

This is the story of two powerful magicians who came to the Ngaanyatjarra Lands from far away to the west;

‘These two men are always together, always camping together. They do all sorts of tricks when they travel across the lands as they stop from place to place. When they reached ‘Wirtapi Wara’ (Long Black or Blackstone Range) they argued about which way to go around. One went around the south side and the other the north side.

At a distance it seemed they didn’t recognise each other or perhaps they were just pretending not to recognise each other! It is also said that at Papulankutja they tricked each other by changing their appearance at the same time so they had no chance to recognise each other. The name Papulankutja comes from the Ngaanyatjarra word meaning, ‘to stare without recognising each other’.

‘They usually took the form of goanna but they could turn into other animals as well. Finally, when they got to Kaltukatjara (Docker River) they had become so arrogant that without realising they walked straight into some local men’s business even though they were warned by the local women. The goanna men led themselves blindly to their fate”.

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Mossman River Design

The Mossman River is very important to me and my family. Laurence, my partner and the father of our 5 children, is one of the Traditional Owners of this area. We both grew up along the river and Laurence’s grandparents used to live in a hut next to the river. In the hot season, we used to camp there with our families. Laurence would teach me and later our children how to dive for turtle and fish. We would cross the river to hunt and collect bush food. Back at the camp, we would make fire, cook our damper and fish in an earth oven and share with our families.

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Untitled

Martumili Artists work with over three hundred artists from remote Martu Aboriginal communities, including Punmu, Parnngurr, Kunawarritji, Jigalong, Irrungadji (Nullagine), and Warralong, as well as from the Parnpajinya (Newman) gallery and studio spaces. Known for their diverse, energetic, and unmediated painting styles, their works reflect the dramatic geography and scale of their homelands. Each artist, however, brings a unique approach to their craft.

Younger Martu artists often start painting alongside their parents, grandparents, and extended family, which fosters an organic learning process. This not only involves mastering painting techniques but also understanding specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, bush tucker, and Jukurrpa (Dreaming). Over time, with encouragement from their peers, they develop their own distinct styles and explore unique painting techniques and subject matter. In this work the artist brings a contemporary, evolving perspective to their work.

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Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment)

“That’s Kumpupirntily- Lake Disappointment. The cannibals live underneath the lake there. It’s a salt lake. That’s all the ladies sitting around the lake, sitting around the claypans in the lake. That’s our Country; mine and Yunkurra’s [Billy Atkins’] Country.”

– Judith Anya Samson

Kumpupirntily lies within Anya’s ngurra (home Country, camp) through her family. This a stark, flat and unforgiving expanse of blinding salt lake is surrounded by sand hills, and located in the Little Sandy and Gibson Desert of Western Australia. Kumpupirntily translates to ‘bladder burst’; the lake was formed when the bladder of the Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes) burst here. Jila Kujarra is one of the key Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives for the Martu. Though the story belongs to Warnman people, it is shared across the Western Desert with several other language groups. The narrative centres on the travels of two snakes as they are pursued by the Niminjarra, spiritual ancestors of the Warnman people. 

Later in the Jukurrpa period the Ngayurnangalku (ancestral cannibal beings) made Kumpupirntily their home, where they continue to remain today. For this reason Kumpupirntily is considered one of the most sacred and dangerous sites of the Western Desert. The Ngayurnangalku are fearsome ancestral cannibal beings said to resemble people in their appearance, except for their fangs and long curved knife like fingernails they use to catch and hold their human victims. 

At Kumpupirntily, the Ngayurnangalku had a meeting to debate whether or not they would continue to live as cannibals, and eventually came to the decision to stop eating people. That night, a female baby cannibal was born. Following protocol, the baby also had to be consulted by the group. She determined that the Ngayurnangalku should continue to eat people. Her decision divided the group, and from this point the group from the east continued to live as ‘bad’ cannibals at Kumpupirntily, while the group from the west became ‘good’, thereafter consuming only animals. 

The cannibal Ngayurnangalku still live beneath the crust of Kumpupirntily lake in an underground world lit by their own sun. They surface only to feed on human flesh, coming in and out of the world we see through a small hill that acts as a gateway between worlds; Yapu Maparnpa (magical hill). Stored with the Ngayurnangalku in their underground world is an arsenal of maparnpa (holding power for sorcery) weapons, as well as deposits of pujurrpa (red ochre) that the Ngayurnangalku use to paint themselves with when they dance.

Several phenomena at Kumpupirntily act as a warning of the imminent appearance of the Ngayurnangalku; still skies, wilany (boomerang-shaped clouds), and the emergence of the parla-parla (type of lizard), smacking their mouths. The vigilance of the Martu as they travel in the Country around Kumpupirntily is so great that several other precautions are followed; fires are not lit, planes and helicopters are not flown directly over the area, and digging in the lake is strongly discouraged. All of these activities are believed to disturb the Ngayurnangalku, causing them to rise from their underground world.

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Kakan (Black Palm) Basket Weaving

This design shows how the bottom part of a black palm basket is woven. My grandmothers and aunties used to make them. They cut off the young palm leaves in the centre, stripped and scrapped them. Then they would put the strips in freshwater to make them soft and keep them straight for weaving.

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Mossman River Design

The Mossman River is very important to me and my family. Laurence, my partner and the father of our 5 children, is one of the Traditional Owners of this area. We both grew up along the river and Laurence’s grandparents used to live in a hut next to the river. In the hot season, we used to camp there with our families. Laurence would teach me and later our children how to dive for turtle and fish. We would cross the river to hunt and collect bush food. Back at the camp, we would make fire, cook our damper and fish in an earth oven and share with our families.

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