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Mukurtu

“This one Mukurtu, spring water, yinta (permanent spring). It is good water to drink; it’s bad to drink if you are a big woman, if you are a woman this kapi (water) makes you fat! 

Mukurtu nana mili (Mukurtu is my nana’s Country), daddy, sister, brother’s ngurra (home Country, camp). We walked around here long time [ago]. We collected bush tucker here. We collected seeds around here for grinding and making damper. We were walking around here in pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) days, we were little girls with no clothes. [One time, my sister, Mayiwalku] May got hurt, she was crying for a feed because she was hungry. 

This is nice Country, [my husband] Minyawe’s mummy and daddy were around here, and Jakayu [Biljabu’s] and Rosie [Mantararr Williams’s (dec.)] father. It’s old people Country from a long time [ago], lots of families were here in pujiman days. We go to this Country when it’s yalta (cold).” 

 – Nyanjilpayi (Ngarnjapayi) Nancy Chapman, Mayiwalku’s sister

Mukurtu is a small freshwater spring located just west of Mamunara (Canning Stock Route Well 28), and within Lake George salt lake. This site is surrounded by extensive tali (sandhills). Around the spring grows an abundance of grasses that need to be pulled away in order to access the fresh water. The area is also known as a good hunting site, particularly for rabbits and other small game. This site lies within Mayiwalku’s ngurra, the area which she knew intimately and travelled extensively with her family in her youth. She travelled around this area with her two mummies, her daddy and her sisters, Mulyatingki and Nyanjilpayi. 

During the pujiman period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. At this time 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 by name, location, quality and seasonal availability through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. 

Mukurtu is also known as an important site in the Martu Jila Kujarra (Two Snakes) Jukurrpa. Though the story belongs to Warnman people, it is shared across the Western Desert with several other language groups. The narrative centres on the travels of two snakes as they are pursued by the Niminjarra, spiritual ancestors of the Warnman people. Before transforming themselves into snakes, the Jila Kujarra were young brothers waiting to be released from ceremony at the boundary of Mukurtu.

Categories: Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

Name: May Mayiwalku (May Wokka) Chapman

Language: Manyjilyjarra

Community: Warralong

Biography:

Mayiwalku May Chapman is the eldest sister of fellow Martumili Artists Nancy Nyanjilpayi (Ngarnjapayi) Chapman, Mulyatingki Marney and Marjorie Yates (dec.). Her mother was Warnman and her father was Manyjilyjarra. Mayiwalku was born to the East, in Yirnangarri, “where the two footprints lie”. Her family’s Country extends across the Punmu, Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) and Karlamilyi (Rudall River) regions. Following the death of both their parents, Mayiwalku and her sisters travelled alone between Punmu and Kunawarritji, occasionally meeting with other family groups. They later walked south into Karlamilyi, where they first saw a plane flying overhead. Petrified, they hid under spinifex grass until the plane had passed.

Following the construction of the Canning Stock Route in 1910, the family increasingly came into contact with Europeans and Martu working as cattle drovers along the route. Gradually men from Mayiwalku’s family began to work seasonally at stations around Jigalong, but as a family group they remained living in the desert long after most Martu had moved to Jigalong Mission. Finally, in 1966, following a prolonged and severe drought, Mayiwalku and her sisters made the decision to walk to Balfour Downs, where they were collected by Jigalong Mission staff.

Mayiwalku lived for many years at Jigalong Mission before eventually relocating with her five children to Warralong, a community south east of Port Hedland. She continues to live in Warralong today with her daughter and equally renowned artist, Doreen Chapman. Mayiwalku was one of Martumili’s pioneering artists, and is highly regarded for her technically sophisticated works. Her paintings depict her ngurra (home Country, camp); the Country she walked as a young woman, its animals, plants, waterholes and associated Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives. Mayiwalku’s work has been exhibited widely across Australia and internationally, and acquired by the National Museum of Australia.

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