September 2026

220982440772

Vicky Pula Holmes – Atyenh Amey Amper (My Mothers Country)

Ampilatwatja is my Mothers Country, I come from a long line of artists.

My family still traditionally hunt and gather, I share my love for the land, plants, flowers and trees, with my children and grandchildren. 

My paintings are inspired by the changing seasons and I sometimes collect bush medicine plants which I make into tea to drink and bush medicine body lotions.  My favourite is aherr-aherr (lemon grass) which I boil up and then use as a body and hair wash, this always makes me feel right and good.   

Knowing your country is an important part of living in a remote community like Ampilatwatja. Knowing when and where to go hunting and gathering, knowing where there is ‘soakage’ (where you can dig for water), traveling with family for ceremonies, and maintaining a connection with the land.

“This is my Mothers country, my view of country”

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint ‘altyerr’(dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

By , ago

220982442615

Sandra Pula Teece – Atyenh Artna Arnernp (My Bush Medicine)

This is Antarrengeny Country, sandhill country, my fathers country. 

After rain the sandhills are abundant with flowers, grasses and bush medicine plants.

This painting depicts the landscape filled with arrwelth (Parakeelya flowers), alekw (Acacia plants) and aywert (spinifex grass).

By , ago

220982442713

Kiara Pula Ladd – Apmer (Land)

I am new to painting. I am a singer and I love to perform, I have a music video. My mum Robina Pitjara Jones and my dad Kelvin Kemarre Ladd are both great painters, and my dad is a singer too. I really like their work but I have my own style. I want to paint landscapes and I want to paint the colours that I see in my land.

By , ago

220982442842

Joyanne Pitjara Morton – Atyenh Artna Arnernp (My Bush Medicine)

“Bush medicine plants are used for healing on the body and for drinking. We make this by grinding the plants with a rock, we use the juice and the fibre of the plant.

We collect bush medicine plants when we are out hunting. Different kinds of plants grow during different seasons.

There are lots of different medicines, we know what their stories are, we learnt them from our parents and we teach these stories to our children.”

Bush medicine knowledge is still strong in Ampilatwatja, it continues to be passed down to the younger generations and is widely used.


When the women go hunting they often gather bush medicine. The plants depicted here are found in the country around Ampilatwatja, they are used for soothing skin infections and to make a drink to help with colds and coughs.


Painting bush medicine stories is important because it helps to maintain a strong knowledge and culture for the community.

By , ago

220982442941

Eileen Kemarre Bonney – Tijamburra, My Mothers Country

This is my mothers country, Tijamburra, we go hunting there for wild onions, goannas, echidnas and sugarbag honey in the trees. I like to hunt there, there’s water all year round. Even if it doesn’t look like there is, we follow the bird tracks to know where to dig and we find water.

From living here in the remote community of Ampilatwatja, going hunting out bush and traveling for family and ceremonies Eileen knows this land, her country.

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

By , ago

220982442939

Robina Pitjara Jones – Atyenh Amper (My Country)

This is my country out in Utopia an outstation called Soapy Bore it’s  my Father’s country, there’s  big soakage, hills, bush medicine and bush tucker. All my family paint, my grandmother, my mother and aunties. I like to paint, I think about my country, the colours and my family who have gone.

The community of Ampilatwatja made a conscious decision not to paint altyerr (dreaming stories). The artists paint their country where those stories sit.

By , ago

111582443014

Pitu (Separation Well)

“I paint Pitu because my father come[s] from Pitu and all the rest of the family, they belong to there. Family hear the stories all the time from Jakayu [Biljabu]. It’s their connection to that place. All the old people were walking through that area, aunty Jakayu was born there. It’s a sad story, hers. We [went] there… to see it again. It’s a long, long way from Punmu. All the other family [saw] where their family is from and where they belong to.”


–       Kuru Gladys Bidu


Pitu (Separation Well) forms part of Kuru’s ngurra (home Country, camp) through her father. It is a significant cultural site and large soak located yulparirra (south) of Wuranu (Canning Stock Route Well 29) and Kulilu rockhole and soak. As a site where fresh water was available all year, Pitu was an important camp and a meeting place for Kartujarra and Manyjilyjarra people during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era. 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. 


Soaks, or soakwaters, derive their name from the manner in which their waters generally seep into the sand from below stores, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek. Soaks were an especially important source of water during the pujiman era, being the most dependable water source in times of drought. Water was obtained from soaks by scooping away the sand with a piti (timber bowls used for carrying food and water) until clear water gathered at the base of the hole, sometimes at a depth of several metres. Pitu is also surrounded by shrubs that need to be cleared to access its waters.

By , ago

111582443013

Raarki

“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.

By , ago

111582443012

Pitu (Separation Well)

“I paint Pitu because my father come[s] from Pitu and all the rest of the family, they belong to there. Family hear the stories all the time from Jakayu [Biljabu]. It’s their connection to that place. All the old people were walking through that area, aunty Jakayu was born there. It’s a sad story, hers. We [went] there… to see it again. It’s a long, long way from Punmu. All the other family [saw] where their family is from and where they belong to.”


–       Kuru Gladys Bidu


Pitu (Separation Well) forms part of Kuru’s ngurra (home Country, camp) through her father. It is a significant cultural site and large soak located yulparirra (south) of Wuranu (Canning Stock Route Well 29) and Kulilu rockhole and soak. As a site where fresh water was available all year, Pitu was an important camp and a meeting place for Kartujarra and Manyjilyjarra people during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era. 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. 


Soaks, or soakwaters, derive their name from the manner in which their waters generally seep into the sand from below stores, sometimes as part of an ephemeral river or creek. Soaks were an especially important source of water during the pujiman era, being the most dependable water source in times of drought. Water was obtained from soaks by scooping away the sand with a piti (timber bowls used for carrying food and water) until clear water gathered at the base of the hole, sometimes at a depth of several metres. Pitu is also surrounded by shrubs that need to be cleared to access its waters.

By , ago