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Untitled

This is Pukina’s Country- his ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). People identify with their ngurra in terms of specific rights and responsibilities, and the possession of intimate knowledge of the physical and cultural properties of one’s Country. Painting ngurra, and in so doing sharing the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories and physical characteristics of that place, has today become an important means of cultural maintenance.  Pukina’s ngurra encompasses the Country to the North and East of Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33), where he and his family walked during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era.

Portrayed in this work are features of Pukina’s ngurra, such as the striking salt lakes, permanent red tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and the individually named water sources he camped at with his extended family. These include Nyukuwarta, Jamparri, Matakurlu, Marlakajarra, Jilankujarra, Nyunturru, Yunapayi, Kun Kun (Kuny-kuny), Parlkarraparlkarr, and Wakalpuka. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for Martu people during the pujiman period, and are generally depicted with circular forms. 

The encyclopaedic knowledge of the location, quality and seasonal availability of the hundreds of water bodies found in one’s Country 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. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of Country, generating a greater diversity of plant and animal life.

Name: Pukina Burton


Language: Manyjilyjarra


Community: Punmu


Biography:

Pukina was a Manyjilyjarra man born in the northern Great Sandy Desert. His home Country was to the north and east of Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33). When Pukina was a young man he lived a nomadic lifestyle, travelling around with all his family. They would traverse 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. 

Pukina said that everything changed when the government came and picked him up in a motorcar and took him to Jigalong Mission. For many Martu, Jigalong Mission was where their pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) lifestyle came to an end from the late 1940s as they transitioned to a life as stockmen and women working in cattle stations in the Pilbara region and beyond. In the wake of the extreme and prolonged drought of the 1960s, the last of the remaining pujimanpa (desert dwellers) were forced to move to missions like Jigalong, where a supply of food and water was assured. There, many were reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert.

In later life Pukina relocated to Punmu Aboriginal community with the ‘Return to Country’ movement of the 1980s. Pukina’s paintings depict his ngurra (home Country, camp) in the Kunawarritji area, the Country he walked as a young man; its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. His work has been exhibited widely across Australia.


© the artist / art centre