Nyurnma Martu artists paint Country in all it’s different seasonal stages. Important to Martu, and to Martu Country, is the practice of waru (fire burning); a practice that assists with hunting, regenerates growth, and encourages greater diversity in plant and animal life. When Martu Country burns, mosaic fire scars are 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…
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…