“Parlpata Jila (springwater) not little one, big big one, and jilji (sandhill), out bush long way other side of Japirnka in the Great Sandy Desert. I been kill a big fat goanna here, I been dig him up from the ground. I bin also drink this water when I was thirsty. We find kumupaja (bush tomato) and kulparn (pindan wattle) you eat them seeds, also minyirli (small bush tomato) and jiki birds. Only one jilji here”.
Name: Penny K-Lyons (Nyangkarni)
Language: Walmajarri
Community: Mindi Rardi
Biography:
Yangkarni, one of the Walmajarri language group was born at Payinjarra under a tutujarti [desert walnut] tree. She grew up there with her family of one father, two mothers, one brother and two sisters. There is a rock hole with spring water at Wanywurtu where Yangkarni remembers going walkabout for goanna and pussycat [feral cat].
Yangkarni’s family and other groups migrated north to the cattle station country surrounding the Fitzroy Valley. When they left the desert she was a girl in her early teens. During the journey she lost her mother’s sister, then her father and mother. Yangkarni became distressed about losing her parents and wanted to keep looking for them. Her brother kumanjayi [deceased] Pijaju(Peter Skipper) got angry with her and left Yangkarni and her little sister at a nearby Community called Milidjidee and kept going.
Yangkarni’s beautiful paintings show the traditional waterholes and hunting grounds of the Great Sandy Desert where she and her family lived up until the early 1950s
Tutujarti Trees (Desert Walnut) Tutujarti trees all around the two waterhole called Nyijil Nyijil, that way out in the desert; That’s my family country, my family comes from the desert. It has a nut called Read more…
Jurnta (Bush Onion) JURNTA that we digem up from the ground sometime we eat it raw or sometime we throw in the coals
Bush Onion (Jurnta) This country Booloowatu. My community grows bush onions. During the dry season jurnta goes black. This means they are ripe (cooked) and ready to dig up and cook on the coals. The Read more…