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Published by CompNet Systems on March 3, 2022

Yalta

“This is my grandmother’s and mother’s Country, Yalta. It’s very close to Kunawarritji side. I’ve never been there. That was where my mother was born during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) times. All the tali (sandhills) around. I want to go there one day, to see that Country, I might go there one day”

– Marianne Burton

Yalta is a waterhole located between the Great Sandy Desert’s Percival Lakes region and Kunawarritji Aboriginal community. This site was visited by the Ngayurnangalku (cannibals) during the Jukurrpa (Dreaming). These fearsome ancestral cannibal beings are 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. The Ngayurnangalku continue to live beneath the crust of Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment), south east of Yalta.

Yalta lies within Marianne’s ngurra (home Country, camp) through her grandmother and mother. As stated by Marianne here, the site is especially significant to her as it was here that her mother was born. The Western Desert term ‘ngurra’ is hugely versatile in application. Broadly denoting birthplace and belonging, ngurra can refer to a body of water, a camp site, a large area of Country, or even a modern house. 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. This knowledge is traditionally passed intergenerationally through family connections. Painting ngurra, and in so doing sharing the Jukurrpa stories and physical characteristics of that place, has today become an important means of cultural maintenance. Physical maintenance of one’s ngurra, like cultural maintenance, ensures a site’s wellbeing, and is a responsibility of the people belonging to that area.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Helen Samson

Language: Warnman

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

“I been painting in Jigalong long time. I’ve been working at the school there. Take the kids to school. Long time I been working there and at Punmu school, yeah for the kids, yeah long time. I been working and I tell a story for the children.

Now I learn [to paint] myself. I do it myself. I been do drawing, nice colours and then think, think, think. Thinking in my head. And thinking what I can draw with. Just draw it first and do it slowly like that, yeah? Yuwayi (yes).”

- Helen Dale Samson

Helen Dale Samson is a Warnman woman and custodian of the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region, where her family travelled during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era. She is the youngest sister of fellow Martumili Artists Jatarr Lily Long and Wurta Amy French, but unlike her sisters, she was born in Jigalong Mission and has no memory of her parents. Her family had decided to relocate to the mission in order to be reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert, and to access an assured supply of rationed food. Dale grew up in the mission dormitory, schooling and working during the week, but spent her weekends and holidays camping in the Country surrounding Jigalong and Puntawarri with her extended family.

Once married, Dale lived around Puntawarri and Nguyakurlu rockholes, walking and hunting there. Later, like many Martu, she worked at various stations around the Pilbara, including Mundawindi (Mundiwinti) and Sylvania Stations. In more recent years Dale returned to Jigalong Aboriginal community, where she continues to live today with her children and grandchildren.

Dale has established a reputation as a dedicated and innovative painter and weaver. She paints about the old mission days and the places she and her ancestors travelled, along with their associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories. Dale’s vibrant paintings meld a naive Western style with unique, textured motifs and multiple perspectival views of her Country. She is particularly adept at describing the gorgeous array of flora that covers Martu Country, abstracting flowers and trees into beautiful patterns.

Helen Dale Samson is a Warnman woman and custodian of the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region, where her family travelled during the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era. She is the youngest sister of fellow Martumili Artists Jatarr Lily Long and Wurta Amy French, but unlike her sisters, she was born in Jigalong Mission and has no memory of her parents. Her family had decided to relocate to the mission in order to be reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert, and to access an assured supply of rationed food. Dale grew up in the mission dormitory, schooling and working during the week, but spent her weekends and holidays camping in the Country surrounding Jigalong and Puntawarri with her extended family.

Once married, Dale lived around Puntawarri and Nguyakurlu rockholes, walking and hunting there. Later, like many Martu, she worked at various stations around the Pilbara, including Mundawindi (Mundiwinti) and Sylvania Stations. In more recent years Dale returned to Jigalong Aboriginal community, where she continues to live today with her children and grandchildren.

Dale has established a reputation as a dedicated and innovative painter and weaver. She paints about the old mission days and the places she and her ancestors travelled, along with their associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories. Dale’s vibrant paintings meld a naive Western style with unique, textured motifs and multiple perspectival views of her Country. She is particularly adept at describing the gorgeous array of flora that covers Martu Country, abstracting flowers and trees into beautiful patterns.

© the artist / art centre