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Ngurra (home Country, camp)

“It’s their home for them, real ngurra (home Country, camp). Real ngurra is where they been born and grow up.”

– Corban Clause Williams

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. Country for Martu is full of memory; not just the memory of their own movement through it, but also of their family. As summarised by Ngalangka Nola Taylor, “painting the ngurra, they do it to remember their connections.” 

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. 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: Kathleen Maree Sorensen

Language: Kartujarra

Community: Jigalong

Biography:

"I have experience working with different mediums such as felting, jewellery making, carving into wood for printing, and using a pallet knife in my art. I'm also learning from the senior artists from the other Martu communities. Everybody has their own style in their art. I love the stories they tell me from back in their early days.

The good relationship I have with the other artists and working with Martumili is based on respect; the respect I have for elders, and knowledge of two cultures, Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal. That makes me the perfect person to help the Martu people of the Western Desert region to understand how the art centre operates and other things that influence Martu people’s lives".

- Kathleen Maree Sorenson

 

Kathleen started painting at Jigalong Aboriginal community in 1999 and completed a visual arts certificate at Pundulmurra TAFE campus in Port Hedland in 2000. Kathleen paints stories about her Country, various types of bush tucker, stories from her mum and from family trips out bush.

Kathleen experiments with different mediums, working toward the development of her own unique style. Kathleen is also a basket maker; she learned how to make baskets from her Aunt, Dora Booth. "My Aunty asked me to help her start the centre ring of the basket one day and then I started to get the hang of making baskets myself. I started collecting spinifex and sitting with my Aunty and working with her making baskets, then I started making my own." 

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