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Kunawarritji Rockholes

“These are the rockholes around Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33). My mum [Jugarda Dulcie Gibbs] painted the same. It’s my father’s Country; he was born at Well 33. I’m painting Well 35, Kinyu, all the way to Well 38, Wajaparni. This is a big place for us. It’s important. I went on a trip with Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa [ranger group] last year [2018] to visit all these rockholes.”

– Pauline Williams 

Kunawarritji is an important site in the Great Sandy Desert where multiple stories and histories intersect. The area forms part of Pauline’s ngurra (home Country, camp) through her family. Originally a spring water and major Martu pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) camping site, at the turn of the 20th century Kunawarritji was converted into a well along the Canning Stock Route. Each year throughout the 1930-50s, the well became a site of contact between the drovers, their cattle, and desert families.

Long before colonial history entered this Country, however, other stories dominated the site. Primarily, Kunawarritji features in the Minyipuru (Jakulyukulyu, Seven Sisters) Jukurrpa (Dreaming). Minyipuru is a central Jukurrpa narrative for Martu, Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people that is associated with the seasonal Pleiades star constellation. Today, Kunawarritji is a site of return, a place where people came back to continue their life in the desert with the formation of Kunawarritji Aboriginal community in the early 1980s. The community’s cultural significance endures, with the population swelling up to 1000 during cultural business. 

As Pauline states in her account, this work depicts the waterholes and tali (sandhills) in the area surrounding Kunawarritji, typically represented with circular forms. During the pujiman period, 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 through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa narratives by name, location, quality and seasonal availability.

Transfer of cultural knowledge through visual arts is an important way for Martu artists to keep their culture strong. Younger Martu artists like Pauline typically begin painting with their parents, grandparents and extended family, thus fostering an organic process of learning, not only about painting techniques, but also specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, bush tucker and  Jukurrpa

Name: Pauline Williams


Language: Manyjilyjarra


Community: Kunawarritji


Biography:

"I was born in Jigalong. My Dad's Country is all around Kunawarritji rockhole. He was born at Kunawarritji well, [Canning Stock Route] Well 33. Sometimes I paint that area. My mum used to paint and I started doing the painting with her. We painted her Country, and her mother's Country; [permanent springs] Wirnpa and Yimirri, the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories for that Country. It's in the Percival Lakes area. I've never been there but I know those places because of painting with my mum. Both sides I do painting.

I also used to paint with my two aunties; Rosie [Mantararr (Muntararr)] Williams (dec.) and [Muni] Rita Simpson (dec.), my mother's sisters. They've got one father. They came from one Country. My mum and my auntie's painting, that's the one I'm doing now- but my style is a little bit different. 

Background I like to use reds, for the red dust. I also like to use purple. All sorts of colours! I see those colours in the Country- all the sandhills, jila (snakes), or the Country around Kunawarritji well. That area is green.

I feel proud and happy when someone buys my painting. I love painting. I come in every day. Sometimes I go to my father's Country and I do the painting there too."

- Pauline Williams 

 

Pauline Williams, daughter of renowned Martumili Artist Jugarda (Dulcie) Gibbs (dec.), is part of the new generation of Martumili Artists. She frequently paints her mother's traditional country between the Percival Lakes and Kunawarritji. Recently Pauline has exhibited as part of several award and group exhibitions, including 'Revealed Emerging Aboriginal artists from Western Australia' (Fremantle Art Centre),'The Jury Prize' (Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery), 'Cossack Art Awards' and 'Desert Mob' (Araluen Centre).



© the artist / art centre