Nyurnma at Yuulpa “This a waru (fire). Nyurnma (freshly burnt) Country there, and a waru-waru (green shoots and young plants). After that you got manguu (mature spinifex, able to be burnt).” – Ngamaru Bidu Martu artists paint Country in all its different seasonal stages. Important to Martu, and to Martu Read more…
Mirtikanya (Mujupunkanu, Watchpoint Hill) “This one here is Watchpoint Hill near to Jigalong, with all the sandhills and the walyji (river gums). We got warla (lakes) there too. Jigalong is where I grew up.” – Helen Dale Simpson Mirtikanya is a hill and claypan close to Balfour Downs Station and north Read more…
Untitled “This is my Country. My little brother was born here in pujiman (traditional, desert-dwelling) times. I was a big girl, no man yet. We were walking a long way.” – Nyanjilpayi (Ngarnjapayi) Nancy Chapman “When I was born my spirit appeared at Jarntinti. That’s my Country, Jarntinti. I Read more…
Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) “When I was a young girl, I walked everywhere, travelling along the Canning Stock Route. I walked north and west, around Wana warla (lake). I grew up around there, going right around that Country and all the way back to Kunawarritji. But once I Read more…
Tuwa (sandhills) in Puntawarri “I do tuwa (sandhill) in my own style because that’s our Country. That’s a sandhill, that’s the Dreaming- the Jukurrpa. That’s our culture. They stay there and we go through the sandhills at Puntawarri in the car. We go first tuwa, then the second tuwa, looking Read more…
Untitled “When Martu paint, it’s like a map. Martu draw story on the ground and on the canvas, and all the circle and line there are the hunting areas and different waters and tracks where people used to walk, and [some you] can’t cross, like boundaries. So nowadays you see Read more…
Punmu Waterholes Punmu refers to a region and an Aboriginal community within its vicinity, located 670km North-East of Newman. 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 (Dreaming) story. Punmu Read more…
Tali, Tuwa (Sandhills) 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 Read more…
Untitled “When Martu paint, it’s like a map. Martu draw story on the ground and on the canvas, and all the circle and line there are the hunting areas and different waters and tracks where people used to walk, and [some you] can’t cross, like boundaries. So nowadays you see Read more…
Mudcreek at Bidyadanga Bidyadanga is a community located on the Kimberley coast in Western Australia, where the Great Sandy Desert meets the sea. The word Bidyadanga is derived from pijarta/ bidyada (emu watering hole).