111582218892

Published by on May 1, 2023

Karlamilyi

Karlamilyi (Rudall River region) and its surrounds are Warnman Country, located in the very heart of the Martu homelands. The region is situated southwest of the Great Sandy Desert and northeast of the Little Sandy Desert. Spanning through the region is the epic Karlamilyi River, which runs north into Nyayartakujarra (Ngayarta Kujarra, Lake Dora), a large salt lake. The Broadhurst and Fingoon Ranges extend diagonally across the river’s path. The landscape is striking for its abundance of gorges and valleys carved by ice age glaciers, rugged cliffs, red tali (sand dunes), grasslands, sandstone and quartz rocky outcrops, and salt lakes.

Across the whole region are hundreds of water sources; including waterholes, creeks, soaks, lakes, pools and rockholes. Lining the rivers are coolabah, walyji (river gum), yulbah (bats wing coral tree), and several species of acacia and hakea. Jalkuran (paperbark), kurrulyu/ mijarrpa (bloodwood) and jawirli (quandong) are found in the region’s valleys, and wikirrpa (desert oaks) and grasses in the sandplains. The area is abundant with bird species, jila (snakes), maruntu (goannas), red kangaroos and warlpaju (rock wallabies). The region is also home to remote aboriginal communities Punmu and Parnngurr.

According to two of the central Martu Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives, the Karlamilyi River and its surrounds were created by the ancestral beings Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes) and the Wati Kujarra (Two Goanna Men) as they travelled across the lands.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: Lily Jatarr Long

Language: Ngarnijarra, Warnman

Community: Irrungadji (Nullagine)

Biography:

“This Karlamilyi area, big land. That’s a ngurra (home Country, camp) belonging to our old people, Warnman people. We talk for our land, our jila (snake). I grew up in this Country, my Country. This land belongs to our father. In pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) days I walked around here, used to walk up and down tuwa (sandhill) and back to the main camp belonging to Martu. We are Warnman ladies, painting Kintyre and Karlamilyi. We can share this Country.”

- Sisters Wurta Amy French and Jatarr Lily Long

Jatarr is a Warnman woman and custodian of the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region. She was born in the late 1930’s at Jatarrngara, a water source located along the Karlamilyi River, and the site from which her name is derived. Jatarr is the sister of fellow Martumili Artists Wurta Amy French and Helen Dale Samson. Her father was a drover who attempted, unsuccessfully, to steal Jatarr’s mother and take her back to the Kimberley region.

Jatarr grew up with her family in the area surrounding Tiwa (Canning Stock Route Well 26), a water source located east of Parnngurr Aboriginal Community and just west of a culturally significant group of hills called Partujarrapirri. Her family returned to the Karlamily region for a time, moving between camps located all along the Karlamily River and up to the large salt lake, Nyayartakujarra (Lake Dora). In the late 1940’s her family left Karlamily and travelled on foot for more than 200 kilometres to Jigalong Mission, where a supply of rationed food and water was assured. There they were reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert.

At Jigalong, Jatarr lived in a dormitory with her two sisters and went to school. Later, she worked as a cook on various pastoral stations in the Pilbara and mined for tin and other minerals with a yandy (dish used for winnowing seed). Eventually, Jatarr relocated Irrungadji Aboriginal community, just outside of Nullagine, where she continues to live with her sister Wurta, children and grandchildren.

Wurta and Jatarr paint individually and also collaboratively, primarily depicting their ngurra (home Country, camp) in Karlamilyi; its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories. Jatarr uses her artwork as a means of transferring cultural knowledge to her children and grandchildren, and as a political platform, protecting her Country from mining and other disruptions. Jatarr is known for her gorgeous pastel palettes and dreamy landscapes, blending aerial and frontal perspectives. She has exhibited extensively since the inception of Martumili Artists in 2006 in galleries throughout Australia, in Singapore and the USA.

© the artist / art centre