111582231678

Published by on



Honey ants

This work portrays an area known to the artist, painted here from memory. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era 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), and different varieties of warta (trees, vegetation) were carefully observed and remembered. Today, this relationship with Country remains equally strong, despite the movement of Martu out of the desert and into remote Aboriginal communities, towns and cities.

Also visible may be traces of life cycles based around kalyu (rain, water) and waru (fire). 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 visible 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. 

Name: Danita Wise


Community: Punmu


Biography:

“I was born in Derby and grew up with Mulan near Balgo side. 

My grandmother liked doing painting and I watch[ed] her and I started painting then.

I now live in Punmu with my partner and my little family. I like painting and going to work at the women's and children program.

I really like watching movies and walking around Punmu. My favourite places to go in Punmu are [water sources] Jila Jila and Yilara, go [there] for a picnic with the kids.”

- Danita Wise  


© the artist / art centre