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Orange and blue car
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Emu Tracks
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Circle of Strength
A symbol of resilience, culture and connection. The centre reflects the colours of t he Aboriginal Flag- Black for the people, red for the earth and yellow for the sun, giver of life. The outer circle represents the unbroken strength of community, culture and country.
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Grandmother Moon
This piece reminds me of the quiet strength of the night sky. The woven grey-green centre reflects the steady face of the moon, a guide through darkness and a keeper of cycles. Wrapped in Black, it speaks to the mystery of the spirit world, where ancestors watch and protect. A gentle reminder that we are never alone, always guided by nature and the whispers of those who came before us.
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Clapsticks, Redgum #2
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Clapsticks, Redgum
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Walu Rockhole Dreaming, Emu Heart, The Boy Who Tur
This painting depicts a story from the Walu rockhole. There were two men and one little boy camping at the rockhole. The men went hunting and the little boy stayed. The men returned with an emu and pulled out its heart. The boy was holding the heart and blood spilt out onto the rocks. He ran away with the heart and turned into wind. The emu’s blood trail stained the rocks and it can stilll be seen there today.
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Untitled
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.
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Mungili Waterholes and Rockholes
“No one goes there and sees that landscape. Only two, Mr and Mrs [refers to footsteps in painting]. They was walking to see if the water was in there. Walking on the creek sand, they see the colours and walk down to the water hole and dig where the waters been left. Dig the creek sand where there is still water. Little huts where they sit; move when it dries out. Leave remembrance behind. When the water fills up again; come back.
When the creek sand is still moist you can see the colours. You can see many colours – lovely colours come out. I do that in my mind [when painting], go and think about the rock colours there.
Different plants, water runs, and different plants are growing, different seeds. When it rains, all year round, when its overflowing. It’s all connected. The orange sand connects to one waterhole full of water, then flowing through the creek sand. This side down [pointing to one rock hole]; and it’s a bit up [pointing to another rock hole].
I was swimming there. Yeah, we go visit them a long time [ago]. We drink it, rainwater from the rain. Big waterhole. It’s a fresh water, when the rain comes, fills it up. One for swimming and another rock hole for drinking. 3 rock holes; another is special.”
– Marlene Anderson
In this work Marlene depicts a waterhole and rock hole located in Mungili, the small outstation community located just off the Eagle Highway in Western Australia, approximately 430 kilometres northeast of Wiluna and 250 kilometres north of Warburton. Marlene grew up in Mungili, and as such it forms a significant part of her ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). Typically Marlene depicts this site with a central large circular form that represents the main waterhole, surrounded by smaller circular forms representing satellite water bodies.
During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, 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 through real life experience and the recounting of Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narratives by name, location, quality and seasonal availability. This encyclopedic knowledge extends even to the nature and movement of arterial waterways, and sustained Martu as they travelled across their Country, hunting and gathering, visiting family, and fulfilling ceremonial obligations. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water and the corresponding cycles of plant and animal life on which hunting and gathering bush tucker was reliant.