Kunawarritji Kunawarritji is an important site in the Great Sandy Desert where multiple stories and histories intersect. Originally a spring water, at the turn of the 20th century Kunawarritji was converted to a well (Well 33) along the Canning Stock Route. Each year throughout the 1930-50s, the well became a site 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…
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…
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…
Bush Tucker Depicted in this work are traditional types of bush tucker, their habitats, and their related hunting and gathering methods. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, Martu would traverse very large distances annually in small family groups, moving seasonally from water source to water source, and hunting and Read more…
Jurnu & Tali This painting depicts some rockholes surrounded by extensive tali (sandhills) in the artist’s country. Rockhole’s, waterholes, soaks and springs were important sites for Martu people during pujiman (bush) days. The Martu lived very nomadically moving from water source to water source hunting and gathering bush tucker as Read more…
Untitled This work portrays an area known intimately to the artist, painted here in 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), 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…
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…
Basket Baskets are made by Martu women who live in communities to the east of Newman, including Punmu, Kunawarritji, Parnngurr and Jigalong, as well as in Newman, Parnpajinya and Irrungadji (Nullagine). This style of coiled basketry was developed in the Western Desert in the 1990s and taken up by Martu Read more…