Shire of East Pilbara (Martumili Artists)

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Untitled

This is Lorna’s Country- her ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). 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. 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. 

Though Lorna was born in the Port Hedland hospital and she attended school from a young age, she still lived a somewhat traditional pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) lifestyle, travelling in the Country between Marble Bar and Roebourne with ‘nomad people’. Today Lorna lives in Warralong Aboriginal community, 50km north of Marble Bar.

Portrayed in this work are features of Lorna’s ngurra, such as the dominant permanent red tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and the individually named water sources she and her family camped at.

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Punmu Jurnukaja

Punmu is an Aboriginal community located 670km North-East of Newman, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. Created during the return to Country movement of the 1980s, with the recognition of Martu land rights and native title, the community was named after a nearby jukurrpa (dreamtime) story.

Punmu community sits on the edge of a large salt lake known as Nyayartakujarra, or Lake Dora. The lake runs south into Karlamilyi River. There are many yinta (permanent water sources) in Punmu’s nearby vicinity including Wilarra, Rawa, Yilyara, Jilajila and Tuutuu.

Punmu features in several jukurrpa narratives. Of particular importance for the Warnman people is the story of the ‘Jila Kujarra’ (Two Snakes). These snakes travelled through Parnngurr, Punkulyi, Yulpu, and Winukurrujunu, forming lakes, claypans, rocks, rockholes, waterholes and soaks as they went. The powerful elder of the two snakes, Wirnpa, finally stopped at the site of Wirnpa, named for him. The young snake kept on travelling until coming to Punmu waterholes Rawa and Yilyarra, making that Country his ngurra (home camp). Another jukurrpa story describes the formation of Nyayartakujarra as occurring when two travelling snakes were first sung to sleep and then killed by magic men. The snakes’ fat was said to have burned away and melted into Nyayartakujarra.

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Untitled [Kangaroo]

“Jigalong, Doreen, [s]he been born there, [s]he been go Nullagine, as a little little one. [S]He gone Marble Bar staying there and Strelley. I been marry her father.

Every painting Jigalong, Punmu, Parnngurr, go back town. Make em painting big one town. Get em, you gotta get em maybe big one.”

 – May Chapman Mayiwalku (May Wokka)

 

Most often explored in Doreen’s works are the motifs of her everyday modern Aboriginal community life; the animals hunted and plants gathered for bush tucker, the cars and aeroplanes used to travel to the cities and remote communities she regularly moves between, and depictions of the Country itself. 

Collectively this imagery, depicted with Doreen’s trademark wild palettes, painterly brushstrokes, and stark compositions, builds a layered representation of her Country. Doreen’s intimately known ngurra (home Country, camp) is viewed from multiple spatial perspectives, and in stylistic modes ranging from pure abstraction to images incorporating realist and traditional elements.

Doreen’s ngurra encompasses the Country between Western Desert communities and towns; Warralong, Strelley, Marble Bar, Port Hedland, and Jigalong, her birthplace. 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. 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.

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Yiranang

“Yiranang claypan, near [Canning Stock Route] Well 24. It’s a [seed] grinding place. You know that kalaru (samphire, salt bush)? Green one, it grows in the Kaalpa (Kalypa, Canning Stock Route Well 23) area. He grows there, I’ll show you. You make a damper from him. But no kalaru there in Yiranang.

All the bushes there, wintamarra (mulga tree), and tuwa (sandhills). I was walking there as a young girl. No man, single woman. All the women were there; me, Kumpaya [Girgirba], Jakayu [Biljabu], Bugai [Whyoulter], my mother. We would walk there.”

– Ngamaru Bidu

 

Yiranang is a large claypan located just north of Kartarru (Canning Stock Route Well 24). Forming part of Ngamaru’s ngurra (home Country, camp), Yiranang was one of the sites Ngamaru knew intimately and travelled extensively with her family and other family groups, such as the Girgirba, Biljabu and Whyoulter families. Linyji (claypans) like Yiranang were typically visited more often during the wantajarra (wet season) as they filled with water. 

Ngamaru also recalls Yiranang as a ‘grinding place’; here the black kalaru seeds collected from nearby Kaalpa were first washed several times before being ground with jiwa (stones used by women for grinding seeds) to make a type of flour, which was then mixed with water to create a dough that was finally cooked in the ashes of a fire. Kalaru seeds were seasonally harvested in the yalijarra (hot dry months).

During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period Martu would traverse very large distances annually, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. 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.

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Nyilangkurr

Nyilangkurr is a group of three large tali (sandhills) located between Kartarru (Canning Stock Route Well 24) and Tiwa (Canning Stock Route 26), and just east of Wantili, an important creation site.

The traditional lands of the Martu people encompass the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia, an enormous tract dominated by distinctive red tali, or tuwa (sandhills). These sandhills present an unforgiving landscape; sparse vegetation covers a seemingly never ending expanse of dunes, and yet these lands and the location of resources within them was known intimately by its pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) inhabitants. At this time, Martu traversed very large distances annually in small family groups, moving from water source to water source through the harsh desert landscape with incredible stamina and resourcefulness. Travel was often undertaken at night, and when travelling during the day, Martu wore yakipiri (woven bark sandals) to protect their feet from the hot desert sand.

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Untitled

“Jigalong, Doreen, [s]he been born there, [s]he been go Nullagine, as a little little one. [S]He gone Marble Bar staying there and Strelley. I been marry her father.

Every painting Jigalong, Punmu, Parnngurr, go back town. Make em painting big one town. Get em, you gotta get em maybe big one.”

 – May Chapman Mayiwalku (May Wokka)

 

Most often explored in Doreen’s works are the motifs of her everyday modern Aboriginal community life; the animals hunted and plants gathered for bush tucker, the cars and aeroplanes used to travel to the cities and remote communities she regularly moves between, and depictions of the Country itself. 

Collectively this imagery, depicted with Doreen’s trademark wild palettes, painterly brushstrokes, and stark compositions, builds a layered representation of her Country. Doreen’s intimately known ngurra (home Country, camp) is viewed from multiple spatial perspectives, and in stylistic modes ranging from pure abstraction to images incorporating realist and traditional elements.

Doreen’s ngurra encompasses the Country between Western Desert communities and towns; Warralong, Strelley, Marble Bar, Port Hedland, and Jigalong, her birthplace. 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. 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.

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Untitled

Martumili Artists work with over three hundred artists from remote Martu Aboriginal communities, including Punmu, Parnngurr, Kunawarritji, Jigalong, Irrungadji (Nullagine), and Warralong, as well as from the Parnpajinya (Newman) gallery and studio spaces. Known for their diverse, energetic, and unmediated painting styles, their works reflect the dramatic geography and scale of their homelands. Each artist, however, brings a unique approach to their craft.

Younger Martu artists often start painting alongside their parents, grandparents, and extended family, which fosters an organic learning process. This not only involves mastering painting techniques but also understanding specific locations, family histories, traditional ways of life, bush tucker, and Jukurrpa (Dreaming). Over time, with encouragement from their peers, they develop their own distinct styles and explore unique painting techniques and subject matter. In this work the artist brings a contemporary, evolving perspective to their work.

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Untitled

This is Lorna’s Country- her ‘ngurra’ (home Country, camp). 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. 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. 

Though Lorna was born in the Port Hedland hospital and she attended school from a young age, she still lived a somewhat traditional pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) lifestyle, travelling in the Country between Marble Bar and Roebourne with ‘nomad people’. Today Lorna lives in Warralong Aboriginal community, 50km north of Marble Bar.

Portrayed in this work are features of Lorna’s ngurra, such as the dominant permanent red tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and the individually named water sources she and her family camped at.

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Jarntinti

“This is a linyji (claypan). We find kalaru (seed used for making damper from samphire bush) there that we collect. Too much good tucker! 

I been go, everywhere, all over the place, and bush tucker. Get ‘em, collecting them and go back. I been jartu working, find ‘em, digging take em back. Piyarna piyarna piyarna put em in the wika, waru [fire], yamparl [damper].  

Kalaru [seed, samphire species], mirrka [making food], damper pirrangka

[talking about making damper at Jarntinti from Kalaru seed in the desert.]

Pirra, pirra country, desert long way. Ngarninya jiliku ngalka. Going hunting pujikatuku, and parnajarrpa, parnaparti, ngula, come back, lungkurta, nyiyari, take em back, cook em, (…) go back, right up, another one.

 Pararra pararra, kakarra Tarlpa, Tarlpa water, Jarntinti yaninpa kararra, kararra kararra, Jarntinti, Tarlpa water one, Jutupa long way. Parraja yalinyja Jutupa, Jutupa, yanikirninya palarri yanikirninya yanikirninya kakarra warrarn kakarra warrarn, yanikirninya kuwiyikarti pungkanyikinrinya pujikatu pujikatu, lungkurta everything. Kuwiyilangu yanikirninya malka wanikirninya.

Finished yankula nyarni Jarntinti… gone Jutupa, Jutupakarti.”

 – May Chapman Mayiwalku (May Wokka)

[Talks about travelling across a lot of country, collecting seed, yandying, grinding and making damper on the fire. 

Making damper from Kalaru seed in the desert at Jarntinti.

Hunting in the desert for cats, sand goannas, thorny devils, blue-tongue lizards.

She talks about travelling from Tarl springs to Jarntinti claypan, walking the country hunting all different bush meats, filling up and carrying the leftovers, travelling further towards Jutupa in the northwest, further away.]

 

Jarntinti is a large claypan at the Southern end of Nyayartakujarra (Lake Dora), a large salt lake surrounded by tali (sand hills) within the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region. This area forms part of Mayiwalku’s ngurra (home Country, camp), the region which she traversed extensively as a young girl. Mayiwalku’s sister Nyanjilpayi was born at Jarntinti. 

During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era, Jarntinti was primarily used as a camping site in the wantajarra (wet season), when the claypan filled with kapi (water). Other nearby water sources include Tarl, Kartuny, Wawul, Warnkarr, Jutupa, and Kunalimpi. 

Jarntinti is known as a site where kalaru grows in abundance. In the pujiman era, the black kalaru seeds were seasonally harvested from this area. Once collected a labour intensive process began to produce damper, a type of flat bread. The kalaru seeds were first washed several times before being ground with a jiwa (stones used by women for grinding seeds) to make a type of flour, which was then mixed with water to create a dough that was finally cooked in the ashes of a fire.

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Untitled [Warralong]

“Jigalong, Doreen, [s]he been born there, [s]he been go Nullagine, as a little little one. [S]He gone Marble Bar staying there and Strelley. I been marry her father.

Every painting Jigalong, Punmu, Parnngurr, go back town. Make em painting big one town. Get em, you gotta get em maybe big one.”

 – May Chapman Mayiwalku (May Wokka)

 

Most often explored in Doreen’s works are the motifs of her everyday modern Aboriginal community life; the animals hunted and plants gathered for bush tucker, the cars and aeroplanes used to travel to the cities and remote communities she regularly moves between, and depictions of the Country itself. 

Collectively this imagery, depicted with Doreen’s trademark wild palettes, painterly brushstrokes, and stark compositions, builds a layered representation of her Country. Doreen’s intimately known ngurra (home Country, camp) is viewed from multiple spatial perspectives, and in stylistic modes ranging from pure abstraction to images incorporating realist and traditional elements.

Doreen’s ngurra encompasses the Country between Western Desert communities and towns; Warralong, Strelley, Marble Bar, Port Hedland, and Jigalong, her birthplace. 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. 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.