Mirtikanya (Mujupunkanu, Watchpoint Hill) Mirtikanya is a hill and claypan close to Balfour Downs Station and north of Jigalong Aboriginal community. During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) era, Mintikanya was primarily used as a camping site in the wantajarra (wet season), when the claypan filled with kapi (water). Mirtikanya’s Read more…
Lake Disappointment (Kumpupirntily) “Thats Kumpupirntily- Lake Disappointment. The Cannibals live underneath the lake there, its a salt lake. [gesturing to the u-shaped symbols in the painting] That’s all the ladies sitting around the lake, sitting around the the claypans in the lake. That’s our Country, mine and Yunkurra’s Country.” – 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…
Jila (snake, living water) “All the jila (snakes) making the Country. Good Country, flash one! Like people, jila, when they get old, they die. Can’t help it. Like Martu die, he dead. No more life.” – Yunkurra Billy Atkins The Western Desert term jila is used interchangeably to describe springs Read more…
Punmu waterholes “Punmu, I went there when I was a young girl, a teenager with my mother and father before my mother passed. Big mob of people was there. No building, just little cubby houses [bough shelters]. Long time I been there. These here are the waterholes around Punmu; Rawa Read more…
Untitled This is Dale’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…
Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment) “Clouds here. It’s dry, no water, but still flowers grow.” – Helen Dale Samson Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment) is a stark, flat and unforgiving expanse of blinding salt lake surrounded by sand hills, located in the Little Sandy and Gibson Desert of Western Australia. Kumpupirntily translates to 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…
Mirtikanya (Mujupunkanu, Watchpoint Hill) “This one here is Watchpoint Hill near to Jigalong, with all the sandhills and the walyji (white 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…
Kunawarritji Rockholes “These are the rockholes around Kunawarritji. My mum (Dulcie Gibbs Jugarda) painted the same. It’s my father’s country, he was born at Well 33. I’m painting Well 35 – Kinyu, all the way to Well 38 Wajaparni. This is a big place for us. It’s important. I went Read more…