Untitled This is Bugai’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 Read more…
Kulyakartu “My Country, Kulyakartu. I grew up there, from little boy to big boy grew up there.” – Muuki Taylor This painting depicts Kulyakartu, Muuki’s ngurra (home Country, camp). Kulyakartu is located in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Read more…
Untitled This canvas was painted as part of the Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools) exhibition, a project designed to engage and celebrate the schools of the remote Martu communities. This painting portrays physical elements of Martu Country, such as the dominant tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and water sources. Rock Read more…
Karlamilyi “Karlamily after the rain; nice green grass beautiful flowers, smell of the rain hitting the red dirt, I miss going back. I grew up hunting there. When the river runs that’s when the fish come, once a year, cyclone time. In the river there’s a big pool and big Read more…
Untitled This work portrays an area known intimately to the artist, painted here in exquisite detail 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), 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…
Tiyu Rockhole “Tiyu rockhole in the middle here. Warta (vegetation, tree) there, in the parna (ground, earth).” – Ngarga Thelma Judson Tiyu is a rockhole in the sandy Country of the Percival Lakes region that forms part of Ngarga’s ngurra (home Country, camp). The rockhole is surrounded by a number of claypans that 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…
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…
Punmu Hill This painting portrays physical elements of Martu Country, such as the dominant tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and water sources. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for Martu people during the pujiman (nomadic bush) era, with many important jukurrpa (dreamtime stories) chronicling the Read more…