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Gladys Kuru Bidu Biddy Bunawarrie Marianne Burton Derrick Butt Doreen Chapman Corban Clause Williams Lorna Linmurra Mary Rowlands Helen Dale Samson Judith Anya Samson Debra Thomas Cyril Whyoulter Tamisha Williams
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Foreword
With these canvases and photographs, we are privileged to witness the influence of Martumili’s most senior artists upon the work of emerging generations who, taking inspiration from their forebears, are moving desert art forward in new, exciting, and experimental directions. BHP is proud to be the Principal Partner of Martumili Artists, and also the Principal Partner of FORM, an organisation which has for years engaged deeply with the Aboriginal artists and communities of the Pilbara. We know that strong relationships with Indigenous peoples create opportunities for deeper listening and action. These relationships must be founded in deep respect and demonstrate meaningful engagement, trust and mutual benefit. BHP is
committed to prioritising this wherever we operate in the world. In Australia we are determined to maximise the contribution we can make to the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples through our relationships and commitment to reconciliation. We’d like to think that BHP’s support has helped bring the art and artists of the Pilbara to the attention of many national and international audiences and collectors. Exhibitions like What Now? bring us up close to the legacy and enactment of an unbroken affiliation to tradition, culture and Country. They showcase a rich and living culture, which embodies knowledge and tradition that is tens of thousands of years old. Spending time with these artworks, it becomes impossible to ignore the importance of what they represent.
They speak to the significance of family, shared story, heritage, land, the passing on and reinforcement of wisdom and belief. The artworks are evidence of an enduring story and connection to Country, and testament to the capability of Martumili Artists in articulating and sharing intergenerational knowledge for the benefit of us all. We wish to recognise all the artists who have contributed to this special exhibition in 2020, informed and inspired by their predecessors.
Meath Hammond,
Head of Corporate Affairs BHP WA Perth, October 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Welcome to What Now? an extraordinary exhibition of work by the rising generation of the Pilbara’s Martumili Artists.
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What Now?
The next generation of Martumili Artists
What Now? has been co-curated by FORM and Martumili Artists to introduce the rising generation of Martu artists to audiences outside of the Pilbara. Comprising recent paintings and photographs by 13 young and emerging Martumili Artists, the exhibition reveals the richness of artistic vision, talent and ambition that resides within some of Western Australia’s most remote communities. Though Martu culture is tens of thousands of years old, Martu art making represents one of the youngest Aboriginal art movements in Australia, only beginning via a series of painting workshops in 2001, whose success would lead to the establishment of Martumili Artists five years later. 1 The art centre is based in Parnpajinya (Newman), with represented artists also working across the remote communities of Jigalong, Parnngurr, Punmu, Kunawarritji, Irrungadji and Warralong. The artists and their families are the traditional custodians of vast stretches of the Great Sandy, Little Sandy, and Gibson Deserts as well as the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) area – a land mass totalling in excess of a staggering 13 million hectares.
The Martu were among the last Aboriginal people to encounter Europeans, and largely maintained an entirely independent, nomadic lifestyle within these traditional lands until the mid-twentieth century when they slowly gravitated toward settlements and missions in response to an extended and severe drought. As such, traditional desert life, the pujiman time, is within the living memory of many Martu today, and much energy has been devoted to ensuring that its legacy endures. The ‘return to Country’ movement of the 1980s saw many establish and resettle in small communities across the desert, and today initiatives such as the Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ) Martu rangers program – and Martumili Artists itself – helps maintain access to and management of ancestral lands, which remain the community’s primary source of creative and spiritual inspiration. The majority of the paintings in this exhibition can be understood as maps of Martu Country, however in contrast to Western cartography, they may record the landscape from multiple perspectives (and time periods) at once, and are embedded with important cultural knowledge and history. As such, the act of painting is itself an experience
of Country – when painting Country, Martu artists inhabit it, even if they are painting in another location. “It’s good to make work sitting out in Country, but I can make these paintings anywhere, just like those old people” Cyril Whyoulter stated of his Wantili series in 2018, “Wherever I am, painting Country takes me back there in my head, back to Jurkurrpa [Dreaming] times, back to pujiman days when my grandmother walked around there…” 2 This is particularly important for artists who live far away from their traditional lands, as painting allows them to retain their connection to Country and the ancestors who dwelled within it, even when they are unable physically to travel there. Derrick Butt’s depictions of the site of Kulyakartu in the Great Sandy Desert for example allow him to maintain his connection with his (deceased) grandmother and her Country in the far north of the Martu homelands. “She’s not around but I can carry her story,” he states, “carry [her] legacy through my art.” 3 Butt’s canvases comprise shimmering fields of dots punctuated by the dark circular forms of the temporary waterholes that nourish the site following the wet season, his layered dotwork pulling the viewer’s gaze into his compositions, immersing them in the Country depicted.
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While Butt’s work depicts his grandmother’s lands, a spontaneous trip to his grandfathers’ Country in 2018 triggered an intensive period of creative inspiration for fellow What Now? exhibitor Corban Clause Williams. “The KJ rangers were going to visit Kaalpa and asked “we going Kaalpa, you wanna come?” The oldies said “go see your grandfathers’ Country”… When we been in Kaalpa they [elders] said “this is your Country, this is your home. This one here is yours and your little sister’s [Tamisha Williams] home, this is your two’s grandfathers’ Country.” 4 The experience proved formative for the young artist, resulting in a watershed body of works that changed the course of his practice, resulting in his first solo exhibition with FORM in 2019, and winning him the Youth Award at the Hedland Art Awards in 2018, and Best Overall Work at the Cossack Art Award in 2020.
Williams’ experience at Kaalpa indicates the power of such engagement on Country for emerging Martu artists, “When I went there, I was pukurlpa [happy]” he states, “it made you open up your spirit, feels like home”.5 The influence of the KJ ranger and on-Country programs has been equally profound for many of the What Now? artists, in facilitating new ways to engage with their traditional lands. Notably, KJ work has allowed some artists to view their Country physically from above for the first time, providing a new perspective from which to understand their heritage. “It’s the first time I went in a chopper to see the waterholes” Debra Thomas states of her What Now? works, which were inspired by a KJ trip with her aunt, senior Martu artist Kumpaya
Girgiba. “Kumpaya take me to show me the waterholes, show me my father’s Country. It was good.”6 The experience inspired her stately depictions of waterholes connected by looping tali [sand dunes], and proved formative for her art practice “I went first to see the waterholes and then I start painting” she notes. Similarly Marianne Burton began depicting the rock holes and springs around Punmu after viewing them from a plane. Burton is the daughter of one of the most important Martu artists, Pukina Burton, and learnt to paint by assisting him, however in contrast to his austere geometric compositions, her solo works have a shimmering feminine delicacy evoking the colours and light of the desert dawn and dusk.
Left: Corban Clause Williams with his artwork at Kaalpa. Photograph by Tamisha Williams, 2020. Above: Marianne Burton with her artwork at Punmu. Photograph by Tamisha Williams, 2020.
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Bugai Whyoulter and Cyril Whyoulter with a collaborative painting at Wantili. Photograph c/o Martumili Artists, 2017.
Aerial depictions of Country also dominate the works of Biddy Bunawarrie, Lorna Linmurra and Mary Rowlands, three artists based in Warralong Community between Port Hedland and Marble Bar. Initially on the periphery of the desert art movement, they were inspired to begin painting after watching fellow Warralong resident, senior Martu painter May Wokka Chapman at work. Chapman’s influence can still be noted in the artists’ depictions of Country, but each artist is developing her own style. Rowland’s single work in this exhibition is a striking depiction of four rock holes near Parnngurr Community, while Linmurra presents a diverse series of landscape works in various styles. In contrast to the majority of works in the exhibition that capture the inland desert regions, Bunawarrie depicts the Pilbara’s northern coastal plains, between Port Hedland and Broome, with assertive flair. Though aerial landscapes such as those presented by Bunawarrie, Burton, Linurra, Rowlands and Thomas are most commonly associated with Martu art, the desert painting movement also boasts a powerful figurative tradition through the legacy of senior artists, sisters Amy French and Lily Long, whose highly detailed canvases illustrate contemporary and traditional knowledge of the land around Parnngurr and Karlamilyi. What Now? artists Helen Dale Samson and Doreen Chapman each continue this tradition through their richly nuanced depictions of desert life. Both artists paint at speed, lending their works an arresting immediacy, and they also share a quick wit, seen for example in Chapman’s wonky depictions of livestock, and Samson’s inclusion of a group of Martu waiting to hitch a ride into town on
a passing truck. Though undeniably naïve, their keen eye for such idiosyncratic detail and narrative makes their works endlessly compelling. While depictions of the land represents the major thematic drive of Martu art, another crucial point of reference for the What Now? artworks is the important practice of marlpa [collaboration/companionship], which has resulted in the many iconic large-scale Martumili group canvases that now feature in some of Australia’s most important collections of contemporary art. However, as detailed in John Carty and Ngalangka Nola Taylor’s seminal essay on the topic, 7 Martu artmaking is by its very nature collaborative, with even individual works by solo artists created in the literal and spiritual company of relatives and friends. Passing on the knowledge of Country is an integral role of senior Martu people, and artmaking provides the ideal conduit for doing so. Artists generally first begin painting by assisting their older relatives, allowing them to learn the geography and history of the locations they are painting, while acquiring important instruction regarding the cultural content that they are and aren’t allowed to paint. Marlpa has been integral to the What Now? artists’ creative development, with senior painters such as Billy Yunkurra Atkins, Jakaju Biljabu, May Wokka Chapman, Dada Samson, Muuki Taylor, Ngalangka Nola Taylor, Wokka Taylor and Bugai Whyoulter guiding them in culture as well as helping hone their painting technique. These myriad influences can be seen throughout What Now? but the unique energy of this body of works lies in how
the exhibiting artists are personalising and adapting it into their own style and lived experience. A notable aspect of Martu culture is that painting (and the subsequent sharing of cultural knowledge) is able to cross boundaries of age and gender more fluidly than in some other Aboriginal communities. Cyril Whyoulter for example shares a particularly close affinity with his grandmother, senior painter Bugai Whyoulter, with whom he has collaborated prolifically in recent years. Both Bugai and her contemporary Jakaju Biljabu have also been significant influences on Corban Clause Williams, while Marianne Burton learnt to paint alongside her father, Pukina, and Judith Anya Samson with her grandmother, Dadda Samson (dec.). Such organic collaborations between artists of vastly different ages, genders, cultural backgrounds and levels of cultural and professional experience are a distinctive point of difference for Martumili, and What Now? includes a number of works that illustrate this compelling practice. Cyril Whyoulter’s Karlamilyi is a solo work, but was painted while working alongside his grandmother Bugai, with the influence of her signature style clearly visible; the two Whyoulters also share a fearlessly experimental approach to their mark making that has resulted in a highly diverse output from each, with a number of Cyril’s different painting styles represented in What Now? The striking Pitu (Separation Well) meanwhile is a collaboration between Gladys Kuru Bidu and senior painter Jakaju Biljabu, and
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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represents a powerful combination of both artists’ styles. Bidu’s solo works for the exhibition meanwhile comprise compositions of circular forms in bold colours depicting the important Martu site of Wantili. The works share Biljabu’s assertive understanding of line and colour, but with an organic sensibility of Bidu’s own. The centrepiece of What Now? is an epic collaborative canvas by Corban Clause Williams and Judith Anya Samson, painted on a FORM-sponsored painting camp in Parnngurr community in mid-2020. The canvas documents a road trip taken by several of the participating artists to visit a number of significant nearby sites, and which allowed Williams to introduce his peers to his ancestral Country of Kaalpa for the first time. Upon the group’s return to Parnngurr, Williams and Samson embarked upon a huge collaborative canvas documenting the experience. The work is impressive in both scale and ambition, and the recording of this milestone in painted form is consistent with the powerful tradition of Martu artists documenting their significant experiences of Country. Samson is the most experienced artist in the exhibition, first learning to paint as a twelve-year-old in the original Martumili art shed, and participating in practically every major Martumili exhibition in the past decade. Her arts education is quintessential in terms of Martu practice, the artist learning from her grandmother, senior painter Dadda Samson, before forging her own uniquely expressive style, “my
nanna learned me to do painting, when I was a 12 years old…Sometimes I paint with her, but I do my own painting now, like my emu tracks.” 8 These emu tracks frequently populate Samson’s canvases and have become iconic of the younger Martu painting movement in their frenetic energy. The practice of marlpa is not restricted solely to painting practice. Corban Clause Williams’ younger sister Tamisha has excelled in the medium of photography in recent years, her documentation of desert life providing compelling and intimate insight into a world unfamiliar to most metropolitan gallery audiences. Some of her most engaging works are created collaboratively with family members, with her approach reflecting a similar spirit of kinship and collaboration on Country to Martu painting, “[W]hen we’re out on like Country, like when I want to take photos of people I just tell them, “just get in front so I can take a photo of you!” 9 she states of her working methodology. Williams has attracted substantial attention with works shortlisted for the Desart photography prize, and acquired by the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a significant achievement for the 24 year-old artist. The title of this exhibition is a catchphrase frequently uttered by Martumili Artists of Williams’ generation after completing a canvas: this one finished, what now? It encapsulates not only the engaging wit that informs much of the work in this exhibition, but alludes to the artists’ work ethic,
and their optimism and generosity of spirit in sharing aspects of remote Aboriginal community life. While What Now? comprises work by Martumili artists who can be considered ‘emerging’, this includes artists aged from their mid-twenties to eighty. Biddy Bunawarrie, the most senior artist in the exhibition, was born in the bush and remembers wearing a nyimparra [hair belt] and living a traditional lifestyle with her pujiman [bush-dwelling] parents prior to her family settling on Aboriginal-run Strelley Station during the 1970s. Yet Bunawarrie’s works are among the most unique, experimental and stridently confident in the show. Her series of three large canvases, completed only a few weeks before the exhibition opening at a Martumili workshop in Marble Bar draw eclectic and highly eccentric mark making into uniquely bold and confident compositions unlike anything she has produced in the past. Such works indicate how these artists are building upon the rich Martumili tradition to push collectively the desert art movement in compelling new directions.
Andrew Nicholls
Senior Curator, FORM September, 2020
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1.
Davis, A. and Robson, R., Kulungka-laju palyarnu (we did it together), from Martu Art from the Far Western Desert, exhibition catalogue published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2014
2.
Whyoulter, C. quoted in Wantili, a collaborative exhibition by Bugai & Cyril Whyoulter, exhibition catalogue published online by Paul Johnstone Gallery, 2018
3.
Interview with Andrew Nicholls, August, 2020
4.
Kaalpa artists’ statement, 2019
5.
ibid
6.
Interview with Alice Boardman, August, 2020
7.
Carty, J., and Taylor, N.N., You don’t go out in Country by yourself, collaborative creativity in Martu art, from Martu Art from the Far Western Desert, exhibition catalogue published by the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2014
8.
Interview with Andrew Nicholls, August, 2020
9.
Interview with Andrew Nicholls. August, 2020
Above left: Corban Clause Williams at the Martumili painting shed in Parnngurr Community, 2020. Above right: May Wokka Chapman and Biddy Bunawarrie painting in Marble Bar, 2020. Right: Debra Thomas painting in Punmu Community, 2020. Overleaf: Biddy Bunawarrie, Jila (snake, living water) (detail), 152 x 76 cm, acrylic on linen, 2020.
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jila (snake, living water) (detail) 2020 - Biddy Bunawarrie Acrylic on linen 152 x 76 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Gladys is a Karimarra woman, she was born near Wantili and speaks Manjilyajarra. Gladys and her family were picked up when she was a baby in Yulpul and taken first to Parnngurr, then to Jigalong Mission, where she attended the mission school. From there she travelled with her family, first to Strelley Station, and then to Camp 61, an outstation on Bilanooka Station. “We stayed there with the old people, so many old people they set up a Martu school there” she says, “Then we heard Martu were going back to their homeland, their ngurra [home Country], so then we came to Punmu with those old people.” Settling in Punmu during the ‘return to Country’ movement of the early 1980s, Gladys assisted with the establishment of the Punmu School in the Community’s bough shelter while looking after her sister’s children. Today Gladys is an accomplished teacher and respected cultural advisor and board member for the Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa Martu ranger program, Punmu School, and Martumili Artists.
Gladys Kuru Bidu Born:
1959
Language:
Manjilyajarra
Place of Birth:
Wantili
Based:
Punmu
Gladys was taught to paint in Jigalong by her aunt, renowned senior artist Jakayu Biljabu, and the two now regularly paint together. Gladys paints her ngurra of Wantili a large round jurnu [soak] and linyji [claypan] near Well 25 on the Canning Stock Route. The area is dominated by claypans surrounded by tuwa [sandhills], and Nyilangkurr, a prominent yapu [hill] is located on the edge of the claypan. Following rain the typically dry claypans are filled with water, with the overflow from nearby waterholes flowing to Wantili. At that time, Wantili becomes an important place for obtaining fresh water for drinking and bathing. Wantili is significant for the fact that at this site Kartujarra, Manyjilyjarra, Putijarra and Warnman people would all come together for ceremonies during the pujiman [traditional, desert dwelling] era. Many jiwa [stones used by women for grinding seeds] from these times can still be found there today.
Wantili is my place, where I was born. It’s a place where everyone was living – it’s all of their ngurra [home]. It’s the Jukurrpa [Dreaming] of that place. All those claypans, a place where everyone comes together for ceremony and gatherings, all meeting with different families. I went there with my aunt (Jakayu Biljabu) and my sister (Kumpaya Girgirba) - they told me the story of where I was born, in pujiman [traditional, desert dwelling] times. We walked all over the place, I was just a little one. Gladys Kuru Bidu, 2020
Wantili (Warntili, Canning Stock Route Well 25) 2020 - Gladys Kuru Bidu Acrylic on canvas 36 x 46 cm
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Renowned senior artist Jakayu (Biljabu) showed me how to paint and in Jigalong I learnt, everybody sat down and were into it, it was good. I ended up looking at my aunty Jakayu and how she do it and I help her now and then when her eyes aren’t good. Gladys Kuru Bidu, 2020
Pitu (Separation Well) is an important cultural site and large soak located yulparirra [south] of Wuranu (Canning Stock Route Well 29) and Kulilu rockhole and soak. Pitu is Jakayu and her mother’s birthplace, and forms an integral part of her ngurra [home Country]. Jakayu grew up in this area; she knew the region intimately and travelled around here extensively with her family in her youth. During this time Jakayu’s family would regularly meet around here with fellow Martumili artists Bugai Whyoulter and Ngamaru Bidu and their families.
Pitu (Separation Well) 2020 - Gladys Kuru Bidu and Jakayu Biljabu Acrylic on canvas 122 x 106 mm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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“Pujiman [bush-dwelling] people they were walking around with nyimparra [hair belts] – old people. They didn’t know nothing about painting. They were walking around with no clothes. I was a kid, a grown kid, I wore a nyimparra and then when we came to the station we made flour bag clothes to wear. We were wearing flour bag clothing on the stations, shorts and little dress and shirts. All the white ones, white bags.”
Biddy Bunawarrie Born:
1940
Language:
Nyanumuda
Place of Birth:
Nyangmada/Anna Plains
Based:
Warralong
Biddy Bunawarrie was born in the bush on Anna Plains cattle station. She recalls walking vast distances of the Western side of the Pilbara between Port Hedland and the desert, an area she refers to as the ‘plains’ (Nyamal Country, around Marble Bar) for most of her young life. Many of the artists residing in this part of the Pilbara recall being transient and moving around with non-Indigenous activist Don McLeod, prior to his establishment of Strelley Station during the 1970s. Biddy talks about following him after people were liberated from stations. “That old man [Don Mcleod] picked you up and cut the rabbit proof fence so we could get out – Don was fighting for black man. The pussycat was a Tjukurrpa and the white people want to kill it but we said you can kill it for nothing. Then it disappeared – no one knows.” Biddy worked as a domestic on Strelley Station and remembers working most of her young adult life before settling in Warralong Community, between Port Hedland and Marble Bar. Today Biddy lives in Warralong with her family. Many of the Warralong artists had been on the periphery of the desert painting movement, but were inspired to try it after watching senior Martu artist May Wokka Chapman, who is also based in the Community. Biddy has developed her own style that depicts the claypans and salt lakes of her ancestral Country. She paints spring country near nimarinya [salt] clay pans. A jila [snake] lives there under the lakes. Biddy paints the surface of the snake’s ngurra [Country].
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Jila (snake, living water) 2020 - Biddy Bunawarrie
Jila (snake, living water) 2020 - Biddy Bunawarrie
Acrylic on linen 152 x 76 cm
Acrylic on linen 152 x 76 cm
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I like painting – I been see my sister painting in Broome. I love to do them and I thought I’d try. So I thought I’d give it a try. We did the painting Hedland and Broome but finished now I just paint in Warralong. Martu mob been learn us for painting. Susie Gilbert is my sister, she is still painting. I love painting! Biddy Bunawarrie, 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Biddy Bunawarrie painting Jila (snake, living water) in Warralong, 2020
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Biddy Bunawarrie, 2020
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2019 Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools) Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA 2018 Revealed Exhibition 2018: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA 2017 Art at the Heart Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Community Life, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
Jila (snake, living water) 2020 - Biddy Bunawarrie Acrylic on canvas 121 x 91 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Snake lives there in the salt and comes from Mandora – inside the salt, and travels underground. Hide him out and goes underneath in the direction of the spring country from Mandora and Bidyadanga, in the direction of the coast. He is underground, same like jila [snake]. You are not allowed to dig that place or come close to the clay pans cause it’s the snake, the snake will eat you. He will come up and you will have to run, he will send the wind to drag you back in his ngurra. You can make a waru [fire] and he will go back into his home. Creek going this side salt on the other. Old line, that rabbit proof fence. This Country follows that line, we use to follow that line from Punmu.
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Marianne Burton Born:
1966
Language:
Manyjilyjarra
Place of Birth:
Jigalong
Based:
Punmu
“I was born in Jigalong, long time Jigalong. They [the old people] all got picked up and bought into Jigalong. Them old people all wanted to go back to the desert. We moved to 61 for a little while and then we all moved this way to Punmu. I was young, 13 or something when I came to Punmu. I like to paint around Punmu rockholes, springs. In the morning, sunset colours that’s what I’m thinking about. In the plane looking down, I want to do a painting what I’m looking at, it looks nice. I want to do more painting like that. I like painting, it makes me feel good.” Marianne was born in Jigalong, moving briefly to Camp 61, an outstation on Bilanooka Station as a child, before settling in Punmu Community (where she still resides) in her early teens. Her father is senior Martu artist Pukina Burton. Her and her father sit down together to paint and Pukina tells stories about his Country. “I’ve been in Jigalong with my father learning to paint,” she states. “I was watching him paint. I stay with them all day, sometimes I help him and he tells stories. Doing the dot paint, that’s when I learn on a little canvas.” One day Marianne would like to teach her children and grandchildren the same stories. “Me and Azaniah [her granddaughter] like painting together, sometimes she helps me too. Sometimes my grandson Jake too, he did a couple. I like having my family around to paint.”
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT 2019 Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Punmu Karti!, Yaama Gaanu, Moree, NSW Revealed Exhibition 2019: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
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Punmu Waterholes 2020 - Marianne Burton
Punmu Waterholes 2020 - Marianne Burton
Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
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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 huts. Long time I been there. These here are the waterholes around Punmu: Rawa Spring - Rawa means ‘long time’, Tuu-tuu, Jila-jila, Wirlarra and Yilyara. That is my ngurra [home Country]. We grew up in Punmu around all these water holes. I still live here with my grandkids, [we share the] same stories for all these places. Marianne Burton, 2020
Punmu Waterholes 2020 - Marianne Burton Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
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I ask the brother to my grandmother, and I was asking them where my grandmother born and which Country, so I could paint it. And they told me some stories and I started painting, because my grandmother left [her] country when [she] was young and didn’t manage to get back to [her] Country. So I wanted to paint like part of [her] history, as [her] grandson, to tell people where my grandmother’s born, and which Country. One day I went to Perth on the plane. And I saw the Country – I was on the window side – and I saw the Country, how different it looks when you’re walking on the land to when you’re in a plane looking down, so that gave me an idea, and that’s how I created my art. And I love painting bird’s eye view, like looking down on Country. Sometimes you can see the land is not always brown and black. I like mixing my colours, brighter colours. That’s how I see the land, looking down on it. And people love my paintings, and how I do art. And I feel blessed that people love my art, and this is my story through my grandmother. She’s not around but I can carry her story, carry [her] legacy through my art. Derrick Butt, 2020
Kulyakartu 2019 - Derrick Butt Acrylic on canvas 152 x 76 cm
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Derrick’s work depicts the site of Kulyakartu in his grandmother’s Country. Kulyakartu is located in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes region of Western Australia’s Great Sandy Desert. Kulyakartu is mostly grass Country where there is very good hunting. In particular parnajarrpa [goanna], wild cats, and lunki [witchetty grub] are found in abundance here.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT
Derrick Butt
I Know my Country, Artitja Fine Art Gallery, South Fremantle, WA Kujungka – Young and Old Together, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium
Born:
1976
Language:
Martu
Place of Birth:
Derby
Based:
Newman
Revealed Exhibition 2020: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA 2006 Parnngurr Artists, Stanford University, California, USA
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Derrick was born in Derby in the Western Australian Kimberley, but moved to Parnngurr Community in the Pilbara region at a young age to stay with his grandmother’s side of the family. He began sketching in school at Parnngurr, soon developing a strong love of art, and then learning to paint. In his late teens he moved to Newman where he started to paint again, and began to showcase his work through Martumili Artists.
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Doreen Chapman Born:
1970
Language:
Manyjilyjarra
Place of Birth:
Jigalong
Based: Warralong and Port Hedland
Doreen Chapman was born at Jigalong Mission in the early 1970s, though she soon moved with her family to newly Aboriginal-owned Strelley Station. In her youth, she continued to travel between remote Pilbara communities including Warralong, Punmu and Marble Bar with her mother, senior Martumili artist May Wokka Chapman. Today Doreen primarily lives in Warralong Community, and paints between art centres Spinifex Hill Studio in South Hedland and Martumili Artists in Newman. Doreen first learned to paint alongside her mother, beginning her artistic career with Martumili Artists in March 2009 when she and the other women of Punmu painted a large collaborative artwork to raise funds for the community. Doreen is now an established artist in her own right, known for her loose, uninhibited painting style, sophisticated colour combinations, and often witty subject matter. As a deaf and nonverbal woman, painting is an important means of communication and expression for Doreen.
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Jarntu (dog) 2019 - Doreen Chapman
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Acrylic on linen 91 x 121 cm
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Untitled 2020 - Doreen Chapman Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
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2020 Always on the Move, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, Qld 2019 A New Perspective, Turner Galleries, Perth, WA 2016 Doreen Chapman, FORM Gallery, Perth, WA
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Different Sorta Colour, TDF Collect, Melbourne, Vic 2019 Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Punmu Karti!, Yaama Ganu, Moree, NSW Salon des Refuges, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Born Strong, Harvey Arts Projects, Idaho, USA Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2018 Pujiman, Martumili Artists and Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland and Martumili Artists, Newman, WA, followed by Western Australian state tour, 2018-2020
COLLECTIONS Artbank, National Gallery of Victoria (in collaboration with other Martu artists), Turner Galleries Art Angels.
Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT Community Life, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
AWARDS
Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2018 Highly Commended, Cossack Art Award
Cossack Art Award, Cossack, WA
2017 Best Artwork by a Pilbara Artist, Hedland Art Awards
2011 Living Water – Contemporary Art of the Far Western Desert, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Vic 2010 Martumili Group Exhibition, AP Bond Gallery, Adelaide, SA Before and After Science, Adelaide Biennial, Art Gallery of South Australia, SA
Kathy Donnelly Award, Hedland Art Awards 2016 Best Painting by a Pilbara Indigenous Artist, Cossack Art Award Kathy Donnelly Award, Hedland Art Awards 2015 Best Painting by a Pilbara Indigenous Artist, Cossack Art Award
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
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“I was born in Hedland hospital. I grew up [in the] Marble Bar area, we were staying there with nomad people, I was going to school. Nomad people would take us everywhere. We then went to Roebourne, everywhere we go. I started working making tins for lollies, for a few years I did. We didn’t know anything [then], we were young people.” Lorna was born in Port Hedland, but spent much of her early life living nomadically on ‘the plain’, the vast track of lands located between Port Hedland and the desert (Nyamal Country, around Marble Bar). Many of the artists residing in this part of the Pilbara recall being transient and moving around with nonIndigenous activist Don McLeod, prior to his establishment of Indigenous-run Strelley Station during the 1970s. Lorna talks about following him after people were liberated from stations, stating, “Mum and Dad were working everywhere so we had to move around with them. We were following Don McLeod, a white person who was an activist and was working for the black people. We think of him as family, he was taking us to hunt and get our land. We were travelling around, then we were in bush and ended up living at Strelley Station. Don got the Station for the people from everywhere – Punmu, all around. Then they went back to their place after that, to homelands.” She attended school in Marble Bar and Port Hedland, eventually settling in Warralong Community after marrying. Today she resides in Warralong with her family, and where she was inspired to paint after watching senior Martu artist May Wokka Chapman.
Lorna Linmurra
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
Born:
1955
Language:
Nyangumarta
Place of Birth:
Port Hedland
Based:
Warralong
2020 Revealed Exhibition 2020: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA 2019 Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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This painting is about every rock hole in Mulialla [sic] where I use to work and we would walk and get some water from the rock holes and go away back home. Get that water from these rock holes when we were working. My father and mother’s surname was Mulialla [sic], they were named after that place. Lorna Linmurra, 2020
Rockhole 2020 - Lorna Linmurra Acrylic on canvas 36 x 46 cm Overleaf: Rockhole (detail) 2019 - Lorna Linmurra Acrylic on linen 91 x 91 cm
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What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Waterhole 2020 - Mary Rowlands Acrylic on canvas 91 x 91 cm
All the girls in Newman took me there to this place, my grandfather’s Country. There are four rock holes near the lake, near Cotton Creek way. Mary Rowlands, 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Mary Rowlands Born:
1953
Language:
Manyjiljarra
Place of Birth:
Hillside Station near Comet Mine, Nyiyaparli Country
Based:
Warralong
“I like to paint bush foods and flowers but I just started painting my grandfather’s Country, I only saw that place when I was grown up. My mother grew up in Jigalong. I’ve been living there for many years in Warralong. I’ve got my family in Newman, stopping near Jigalong and moved this side. I had six kids. I was born in a station on Nyiyaparli Country and my mother been take me from that station to Port Hedland.” Mary was born on Hillside Station near Marble Bar, and spent some of her early life in Port Hedland. After Mary lost her mother she travelled with her brothers, sisters and cousins to Nullagine, and then on to Warralong Community where she currently resides with her family.
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“I was born in Hedland, Port Hedland seaside, but I moved to Jigalong community with my nanna (Dadda Samson) and my pop (Yanjimi [Peter] Rowlands). Then we moved to desert, to Puntawarri, Well 17. I was still a young girl, still crawling in the desert. It was nice there. Some other families lived there with us. We had some farm, some vegetables. We went schooling in Puntawarri at the school, learning ‘two way’ [refers to teaching in both Martu Wangka and English, with a focus on local cultural and ecological knowledge]. We used to go and get some parnajalpa [goanna] and turkey. We had a Toyota truck. We been go hunting at the desert. Some people there still, but they gotta build some new houses and then then we going back to [live in] Puntawarri.
Judith Anya Samson Born:
1988
Language:
Putijarra
Place of Birth:
Port Hedland
Based:
Jigalong and Newman
My nanna’s sister had a house here in Newman, so we used to come and visit. I did high school here in Newman. Now I move between Jigalong and Newman. My nanna is living in Jigalong, so I still go visit her. She’s got a green house. My sister is there looking after her. I started to do painting here at Martumili when I was a young girl. I been help my nanna painting, we were painting Puntawarri one. My nanna was teach me to paint. I work with Martumili now. I help sell the painting, and photograph and catalogue them. I went to America, Fremantle, the Gold Coast, Sydney, and Alice Springs with Martumili. I also like playing softball. We play for Jigalong, Western Desert. I work for KJ (Karninyanpa Jukurrpa Martu ranger program) mob in Jigalong too. I like to dance and listen to music.”
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Anya has exhibited in most Martumili Artists’ exhibitions in recent years. Her work has been acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art and the National Museum of Australia. In 2011, she travelled to the United States of America with other Martu artists for the exhibition Waru at the Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University.
That’s all the waterholes, and that’s all the tali [sand hills] near Puntawarri site. I go out sometimes with the ranger boys and girls, we go to Puntawarri and coming back. We do camping and go see the Country and come back. We do day trip from Jigalong and then to Puntawarri and come back on a Friday afternoon. Look at the Country. Sand hills. We do wallabies, and we do mapping – chopper mapping – we do camera work. And we burn the Country. Judith Anya Samson, 2020
Tuwa in Puntawarri 2019 - Judith Anya Samson Acrylic on linen 121 x 76 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Anya is the granddaughter of Dadda Samson and Yanjimi (Peter) Rowlands, both senior Martu artists. She was born in Port Hedland and has lived most of her life in Jigalong. Anya was raised by her grandparents Dadda and Yanjimi, as her parents passed away when she was very young. Dadda taught Anya to paint, passing stories on to Anya for painting. Anya frequently travels with Dadda to her Country around Jigalong, Puntawarri and the Rabbit Proof Fence, the subject of many of her paintings.
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That’s the emu tracks near Puntawarri site, going to the waterhole. Puntawarri is near Canning Stock Route Well 17. My family’s from there. Judith Anya Samson, 2020
Emu Tracks to Puntawarri 2019 - Judith Anya Samson Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Emu Tracks to Puntawarri 2020 - Judith Anya Samson Acrylic on linen 122 x 91 cm
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2020 Anya: Coming Up Strong. The Journey of Judith Samson, Yaama Ganu, Moree, NSW
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 How Did I Get Here? (Martumili Artists and the Art Gallery of Western Australia), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Kujungka – Young and Old Together, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium 2019 Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT Punmu Karti!, Yaama Ganu, Moree, NSW
2017 Continuing Culture, Artitja Fine Art Gallery, South Fremantle, WA Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA After the Rains, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Yiwarra Kuju: The Canning Stock Route, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba, Tokyo, Japan, Kagawa Prefecture Museum, Kagawa, Japan and National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka, Japan
After The Rains, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
2011 Waru! Holding Fire in Australia’s Western Desert, Thomas Welton Stanford Art Gallery, Stanford University, San Francisco, USA
Yarrkalpinti Warrarnpa: Hunting Grounds, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Women of Martu, Suzanne O’Connell Gallery, Brisbane, QLD
Yiwarra Kuju – One Road, One People, Perth Convention and Exhibition Centre, Perth, WA and Australian Museum, Sydney, NSW
2016 Summer Salon and Art Parade, Whistlewood, McCulloch & McCulloch Gallery, Mornington Peninsula, Vic
2010 Yiwarra Kuju – One Road, National Museum of Australia, Canberra, ACT
2018 Hedland Art Awards, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA
The Summer Collectors Show 2015, McCulloch & McCulloch Gallery, Mornington Peninsula, Vic
Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
2014 Martumili, Harvey Art Projects, Idaho, USA
Voice of the Custodians of the Homeland: Martumili, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium Revealed Exhibition 2018: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
Warla: an explanation of the salt lakes in the Great Sandy Desert, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA Decrochage de lexposition des Martumili Artists, Galerie Kungka, France
2015 Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT
Pujiman, Martumili Artists and Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland and Martumili Artists, Newman, WA, followed by Western Australian state tour, 2018-2020
2012 We Don’t Need a Map: a Martu experience of the Western Desert, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA, followed by national tour, 2013-2016
Art at the Heart, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
Nyurnma (Burnt Country), Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT
Warla Tuwa, Aboriginal Contemporary, Bronte, NSW
2013 My Country, I Still Call Australia Home: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane, Qld
Martu Art from the Western Desert, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, NSW Malya Yuturringu; be a star, State Theatre Centre, Perth, WA
Warla Tjartrjal (Edge of the Lake), Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT Jakulpa laju kartyinpa (Bringing a message), Chapman Gallery, Canberra, ACT
COLLECTIONS National Museum of Australia, Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art.
Right Now, Boomalli Gallery, Leichardt, Vic
AWARDS
My Country: Contemporary Art from Black Australia, Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki, New Zealand
2013 Best Work by an Artist Under 25, Hedland Art Awards
Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
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This one here. Yeah. That’s Jigalong. I’ve been there. I was working there. That’s good, this one here. Stories, yeah? This one here. I was painting in Jigalong. This one’s the cars. The cars. And the houses in Jigalong. And then the sandhills, lakes. That’s the lake [top right-hand corner]. The lake here and the green trees, and the sandhills. We going out working, you know? We going out working to Jigalong. All the ladies we go out. All the ladies. Yeah that’s the one, all the ladies. We work choppers. Yeah I’ve been there in Jigalong with my mum and dad long time. And the cars. We go out in that. We go out working. We just work around Jigalong, the ladies. Helen Dale Samson, 2020
Jigalong 2020 - Helen Dale Samson Acrylic on linen 91 x 91 cm
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Born:
1943
Language:
Warnman
Place of Birth:
Jigalong
Based:
Jigalong
“Yeah I been painting in Jigalong long time. I’ve been working at the school there. Take the kids to school. Long time I been working there. And at Punmu school, yeah for the kids, yeah long time. I been working and I tell a story for the children. No, I learn [to paint] myself. I do it myself. I been do drawing, nice colours and then think, think, think. Thinking in my head. And thinking what I can draw with. Just draw it first and do it slowly like that, yeah? Yuwa.” Helen Dale Samson is a Warnman woman and custodian of the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) region, where her family travelled during the pujiman [traditional, desert dwelling] era. She is the youngest sister of fellow Martumili Artists Jatarr Lily Long and Wurta Amy French, but unlike her sisters, she was born in Jigalong Mission and has no memory of her parents. Her family had decided to relocate to the mission in order to be reunited with family members that had already moved in from the desert, and to access an assured supply of rationed food. Dale grew up in the mission dormitory, schooling and working during the week, but spent her weekends and holidays camping in the Country surrounding Jigalong and Puntawarri with her extended family.
Once married, Dale lived around Puntawarri and Nguyakurlu rockholes, walking and hunting there. Later, like many Martu, she worked at various stations around the Pilbara, including Mundawindi (Mundiwinti) and Sylvania Stations. In more recent years Dale returned to Jigalong Community, where she continues to live today with her children and grandchildren. Dale has established a reputation as a dedicated and innovative painter and weaver. She paints about the old mission days and the places she and her ancestors travelled, along with their associated Jukurrpa [Dreaming] stories. Dale’s vibrant paintings meld a naive Western style with unique, textured motifs and multiple perspectival views of her Country. She is particularly adept at describing the gorgeous array of flora that covers Martu Country, abstracting flowers and trees into beautiful patterns.
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Helen Dale Samson
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GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Revealed Exhibition 2020: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA 2019 Punmu Karti!, Yaama Ganu, Moree, NSW Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA 2018 Warla Tuwa, Aboriginal Contemporary, Bronte, NSW 2017 Art at the Heart, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Community Life, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA After The Rains, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Revealed Exhibition 2017: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA Flight: Aboriginal Perspectives from the Sky, FORM Gallery, Perth, WA 2015 Pukurlpa - Good Inside, Yaama Ganu Gallery, Moree, NSW
2014 Desert Mob, Araluen Centre, Alice Springs, NT Right Now, Boomalli Gallery, Leichardt, Vic 2013 Salon des Refuses, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Martumili Art Show, Newman Visitors Centre, Newman, WA A Study of the Figurative in Desert Painting, Short Street Gallery, Broome, WA Revealed: Emerging Aboriginal Artists from Western Australia, Gallery Central, Perth, WA 2012 We Don’t Need a Map: a Martu experience of the Western Desert, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA, followed by national tour, 2013-2016 Martumili Artists 2012, Merenda Gallery, Fremantle, WA 2009 Puntu Kurnu (Belongs to the people), Newman Visitors Centre, Newman, WA 2008 Martumili Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery Revealed, Central TAFE Art Gallery, Perth
Puntawarri 2020 - Helen Dale Samson Acrylic on linen 76 x 152 cm
“This one Puntawarri. Near Jigalong. Puntawarri. We paint because we go out working there long time. Just working. We’re going out working with the boys, you know? With the boys. KJ [Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa Martu ranger program]. We go out. The ladies go out, we camp there. Look for, ah… look for cats’ tracks everywhere, that’s what we do. Looking for cats. We just write it down. Everywhere. Kangaroos, and camels, you know, when we go out? That’s all.
I was working at Puntawarri there, in the house. I got a house there, a big one. We stayed in there a long time. The husbands, my brothers, my sisters. But it’s finished now. The whitefellas. They took everything out, yeah? In Puntawarri. They been stealing, you know? Long time. But it’s finished now. We didn’t stay there. We just go out with the boys and the ladies, yeah. Just work around and camp there sometimes we go there, camping. That’s all.
This is the houses here, yeah? They’re all gone now, the toilets and everything. This long time ago. Yeah long time. It finished now. And that’s the lake, and the flowers. The lake’s full. You walk around everywhere. Take the dogs. Go hunting, but that was long time [ago]. Long time. And the trucks are all coming to work. And all the people, they’re waiting for the truck to jump in! [laughs]. Yuwa.” Helen Dale Samson, 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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“We’ve been in Punmu long time. We moved from Camp 61 where we were schooling the kids there. And moved to Punmu, and we stayed there. Big mob of us came back in a truck, in an old tractor with the trailer. That old truck still there at the turnoff. We came in that one now. Me and my partner and my two kids, a boy and a girl. We went there. I had Nyriti [her youngest boy] in Punmu. Right there, next to the school, near the lake. It was good! We started a school there in the bough shed. Before it was in a building. I was there with my two kids. No power or houses. Just a tent. We used to make pujiman [traditional, desert dwelling] style, with the warta [wood] and leaves, make some shade. Big mob of us there, they all finish now. Jakayu (Biljabu), Minyawe (Miller) there. Then we made the houses. Good work with the rangers [Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa Martu ranger program]. We see the waterholes, they tell us about our family trees. Go see our Country. Mother’s Country and father’s Country. And now we painting with Martumili. I want to go do painting more. Lovely one, juri [lovely] one. Sit down. I sit down all day, nothing to do at home.” Debra grew up in Nullagine and went to school both in Nullagine and Jigalong. Later in life she settled at Camp 61, an outstation on Bilanooka Station where she helped set up a community school. Moving to Punmu during the Return to Country movement of the early 1980s, Debra assisted with the establishment of the Punmu School in the Community’s bough shelter.
Debra Thomas Born:
1964
Language:
Manyjilyjarra
Place of Birth:
Irrungadji (Nullagine)
Based:
Punmu
Over the last several years, Debra has learned to paint by sitting with the older women. She particularly enjoys learning about Country from the senior women and ensuring that her children spend time watching their elders paint and learning the stories for and history of their County. While painting, she talks about the subtle sparkling colours of the plants and flowers that grow around Karlamilyi (Rudall River). In recent years she has also worked as a ranger for the KJ ranger program. Debra paints her mother’s Country, which is Warnman Country, surrounding Karlamilyi (Rudall River) as well as her father’s country, around Kunawarritji.
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) 2020 - Debra Thomas Acrylic on linen 91 x 61 cm
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We go out there sometimes, but now I’m doing a lot of painting there in Punmu. I was learning to make a painting now, with the old people. But they all passed away now. And they told me, ‘you can do you own Country, your dad’s Country’. And I made a couple of paintings of my father’s Country. They were telling me, ‘just do your father’s Country, Kunawarritji’. Debra Thomas, 2020
GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 The Jury Art Prize, Courthouse Gallery and Studio, Port Hedland, WA 2008 Revealed, Central TAFE Art Gallery, Perth
AWARDS 2020 Most Outstanding Work - Jury Art Prize, Courthouse Gallery and Studio, Port Hedland, WA
Kunawarritji 2020 - Debra Thomas Acrylic on linen 122 x 76 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
We went to Kunawarritji. We went out to see the waterholes with Kumpaya (Girgiba) my aunty – my dad’s sister. It’s the first time I went in a chopper to see the waterholes. Kumpaya take me to show me the waterholes, show me my father’s Country. It was good. I went first to see the waterholes and then I start painting. The waterholes are my father’s Country.
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Cyril Whyoulter Born:
1985
Language:
Kartujarra
Place of Birth:
Port Hedland
Based:
Newman and Perth
“My mum’s father came from Kirriwirri in the North. I can paint that way too. I like painting, it’s a good way to learn from old people, keep the stories going. Yunkurra (Billy Atkins), my nyamu [grandfather], he’s guiding me about what I can paint and share. My closest family is the Taylor mob; uncle Muuki, Wokka, and Ngalangka. They help me too.” Cyril Whyoulter’s mother’s and father’s country is Jartuti. He is the grandson of senior Martumili Artists Bugai Whyoulter and Pinyirr (dec.). Cyril grew up in Parnngurr and Punmu communities. He now lives with his wife and children between Perth and Newman. Cyril first developed an interest in art making when he began colouring in pencil with his grandfather Larry Patterson. An avid experimentalist and prolific painter, he has since mastered many painting techniques and developed his own signature style in which the influence of his grandmother Bugai is evident. In 2018 the pair painted together on Country and created a series of collaborative works that were the focus of a joint exhibition with Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, in 2018, and were shortlisted for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2018 and 2019. Cyril is respected as a learned cultural leader, and is a strong proponent of the importance of intergenerational knowledge transfer.
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That’s an old man with ngankurr [beard] and his brother living there at Punkulyi. They dreaming in Parnngurr area. They yapu [hill, rock] now. They been digging for water. They dug all the parna [dirt] out of the ground, digging and searching for water. They got tired and stayed there. They still there. Cyril Whyoulter, 2017 Punkulyi forms part of the Mackay Range, near Parnngurr community. In the Dreamtime there were two men. The old man was named Ngankurr. When he lay down to rest his body formed the waterhole that exists there today.
Punkulyi 2017 - Cyril Whyoulter Acrylic on linen 76 x 152 cm
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GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2020 Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT
2018 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT Wantili - Bugai & Cyril Whyoulter, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT
I Know my Country, Artitja Fine Art Gallery, South Fremantle, WA
Warla Tuwa, Aboriginal Contemporary, Bronte NSW
Kujungka – Young and Old Together, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium
Martuku Ninti (Martu Knowledge), Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC
2019 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
Pujiman, Martumili Artists and Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland and Martumili Artists, Newman, WA, followed by Western Australian state tour, 2018-2020
Nyurnma (Burnt Country), Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin NT Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
2017 Art at the Heart, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Community Life, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
After The Rains, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Revealed Exhibition 2017: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA 2015 Revealed Emerging Aboriginal Artists from Western Australia
AWARDS 2019 Finalist, 36th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (with Bugai Whyoulter) 2018 Finalist, 35th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards (with Bugai Whyoulter)
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Jartuti 2018 - Cyril Whyoulter Acrylic on canvas 46 x 76 cm Golden Brown are the Martu People 2018 - Cyril Whyoulter Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm Lake Disappointment 2019 - Cyril Whyoulter Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
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Corban Clause Williams Born:
1994
Language:
Manyjilyjarra
Place of Birth:
Newman
Based:
Newman
“I was born in Newman hospital. Mum, Dad, Nanna and Pop lived in Jigalong before, but they moved into town before I was born. I’m one of seven children. I grew up in Newman - this is my home. I like to travel but I worry about home. When I was younger I went to Newman Primary School and Newman Senior High School. My Nanna and Pop used to take us out hunting for bush tucker. I’d help them make a fire and tea. Me and Pop would go out to the swamp area between Newman and Kumarina. Nan, Pop, Mum and Dad would tell funny stories about our family and make me laugh. I work teaching Cultural Awareness with KJ (Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa rangers) teaching Cultural Awareness, and help the YMCA with youth programs. I work at Martumili too, helping to sell the paintings and get the canvas ready. I come to Martumili to paint about my Country, where my grandfather walked around and collected food, and visited the same rockholes I do. I paint to keep my culture and stories and share with others.”
Corban Clause Williams is a young Martu artist who is inspired by time spent on Country – collecting bush tucker, hunting and storytelling around the waru [fire]. Born and raised in Newman, Corban has a deep respect for his Martu family and elders and has spent many years painting alongside senior artists in his community. In his most recent art making Corban showcases a practice informed by tradition yet imbued with his own unique contemporary vision of Country. Corban’s first solo exhibition Kaalpa, at the Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery in 2019 was a sell-out show, and he has subsequently exhibited his work across Australia. In 2020 he was awarded the Ngarluma Yindjibarndi Foundation Ltd Award for Best Painting by a Pilbara Indigenous Artist in the Cossack Art Award.
Kaalpa (Kalypa, Canning Stock Route 23) 2020 - Corban Clause Williams Acrylic on canvas 36 x 46 cm
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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SOLO EXHIBITIONS
I went there for the first time [in 2018] on a Martumili trip to Wantili claypan. The KJ rangers were going to visit Kaalpa and asked “we going Kaalpa, you wanna come?”
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
The oldies said “go see your grandfathers’ Country” - they showed me that well (Well 23 on the Canning Stock Route). It’s got kapi [water] there, a well, jurnu [soak] and tuwa [sandhills]. When we been in Kaalpa they [elders] said “this is your Country, this is your home. This one here is yours and your little sister’s (Tamisha Williams) home, this is your two’s grandfather’s Country”. I went hunting there, got a parnajalpa [sand goanna]. We were looking for bilbys - we couldn’t find any. We got minyarra [bush onion] there too. When I went there, I was pukurlpa [happy]. It made you open up your spirit, feels like home. Corban Clause Williams, 2019
Kaalpa (Kalypa, Canning Stock Route 23) 2020 - Corban Clause Williams Acrylic on linen 122 x 91 cm
2019 Kaalpa, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA
2020 Martumili Artists – Strong Country, Paul Johnstone Gallery, Darwin, NT Kujungka – Young and Old Together, Aboriginal Signature Estrangin Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium 2019 Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT Martumili Kuulkaja (Martu Schools), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Punmukarti!, Yaama Ganu, Moree NSW 2018 Hedland Art Awards, Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA Desert Mob, Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT
Martuku Ninti (Martu Knowledge), Vivien Anderson Gallery, Melbourne VIC 2018 Pujiman, Martumili Artists and Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland and Martumili Artists, Newman, WA, followed by Western Australian state tour, 2018-2020 2017 Hedland Art Awards, The Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland, WA Art at the Heart, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA Desert Mob, Araluen Arts Centre, Alice Springs, NT Community Life, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA 2016 Revealed: Emerging Aboriginal Artists from Western Australia, Fremantle Arts Centre, WA
AWARDS 2020 Best Painting by a Pilbara Indigenous Artist, Cossack Art Award
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Kaalpa is my two grandfathers’ ngurra [home Country]. My two grandfathers, the were pujiman [traditional, desert dwelling] in Kaalpa, where they walked around hunting bush tuckers. They were there hunting, getting meat.
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Kaalpakarti
(going to Kaalpa, Well 23) We went to Parnngurr for work, for painting. Then we decided with the KJ mob to organise a trip to go to Kaalpa (Canning Stock Route Well 23), a one-night trip. So we went to Kaalpa slowly from Parnngurr, back up. We went in all the motorcars - the [KJ] rangers and Martumili together. First we went handpump, had a lunch, then packed that up. Then we went to that old mine camp, had a look around there. Then we went to Wantili (Canning Stock Route Well 25) - big claypan. At Wantili we take some photos. Then we hit the Canning Stock Route, past windy corner, then Kartarru (Canning Stock Route Well 24). Went there, take some photos then we pulled in in the afternoon to Kaalpa - my grandfathers’ ngurra [home Country], my Country. We had some sausages, chops, stories round the waru (fire). Swags out, good times, sleeping under the stars. Then it sprinkled rain, kapi [water] coming down. Then next day we went GJ Bore, went around and see that mailbox, seeing whose been there y’know [laughs, referring to a visitors’ book at the bore]. Then we went to these [gesturing at a section of the painting showing a cluster of circular shapes] waterholes, springs - new springs. I don’t know
that name. Then we came around here past Seven Sisters [rock formation], past that man [rock formation], then we went back ngurra Parnngurr. We went back Parnngurr, then we decided to paint this journey where we went. We went together on that journey, and we painted the journey together. It was the second time I’ve been to Kaalpa, I took my friends there - they’ve only seen my paintings of that place. So I took them there to see what it looks like, showed my friends my artwork as well. They could see the same colours of the yapu [hill], tuwa [sandhills], sky, little bit of lakes. My sister Tameo (Tamisha Williams) took some photographs of me at Kaalpa, with my Kaalpa painting. This painting is marlpa [companionship] - me and Anya painting this one together. We were talking together, painting together, laughing, joking. And this painting is going to Perth for What Now? exhibition. Wanjyalpa [What’s happening]? Me and Anya! Corban Clause Williams, 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Kaalpakarti (going to Kaalpa, Well 23) 2020 - Judith Anya Samson and Corban Clause Williams Acrylic on linen 250 x 300 cm
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Corban and Anya have together painted a visual depiction of a road trip taken to visit several sites, including Corban’s ancestral Country of Kaalpa. Senior Martu artists have often painted together where a story of mutual significance is conveyed, and in this way have produced many of the stunning, large scale collaborative works for which Martumili Artists are most well-known. Here the young artists have engaged in this established Martu practice of marlpa, or collaboration. Kaalpa is a permanent water source located northeast of Kumpupirntily (Kumpupintily, Lake Disappointment). This site is a place of great cultural significance, and is also known for good hunting. Adjacent to the waterhole is a hill of the same name. The landscape around Kaalpa is parlkarra [plains], bordered by tali [sandhills] stretching as far as Windy Corner, northeast and towards the border of Western Australia and the Northern Territory.
Kaalpakarti
(going to Kaalpa, Well 23) That’s the first time I went to Kaalpa with Bamba (Corban). That’s Yanjimi’s (Yanjimi Peter Rowlands) Country, that’s my pop’s Country. I was thinking about my pop when I was there. I was feeling happy in Kaalpa with Bamba and everyone there. Me and Bamba painted that place, we drew it first then we painted it. Me and Corban like to paint together, that’s my brother. And here we are painting Canning Stock Route. We liked to paint together and send it to What Now? exhibition, to Claremont, The Goods Shed! Judith Anya Samson, 2020
Kaalpa also features in the Minyipuru (Jakulyukulyu, Seven Sisters) Jukurrpa, a central creation narrative for Martu, Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara people that is associated with the seasonal Pleiades star constellation. At Kaalpa the Minyipuru met a group of men; it was the first time either group had seen members of the opposite sex. The men tried to grab the women, but the Minyipuru chased them, hitting them with their digging sticks, leaving them lying there as they continued travelling east. The intersection of the Canning Stock Route with Kaalpa also made this a site of early contact with Europeans for many Martu then living a pujiman life in the desert. Following the route’s construction, Martu encountered Europeans and other Martu working as cattle drovers as they would travel up and down the Stock Route from water source to water source.
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Corban Clause Williams and Judith Anya Samson painting Kaalpakarti in Parnngurr, August, 2020
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Golden Hour 1 2019 - Tamisha Williams Digital photograph Dimensions variable
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Sometimes I just go out for a drive. Sometime Alice [Martumili field officer Alice Boardman] will just give the camera, she gives it to me so I can just take photos. Yeah, I just get the camera and see what I want to take a photo of and then I just take a photo and just muck around, do all the settings, the ISO make it a bit darker or brighter.
Tamisha Williams
Last year I started doing jewelleries – jewelleries like earrings. And yes, yeah I do painting, only when I want to do painting I do a painting. But sometimes I usually just do stretch canvas and prime canvas and all that.”
Born:
1996
Language:
Manyjilyjarra
Place of Birth:
Port Hedland
Based:
Newman
“I was born in Newman and I growed up here, and so I started going to the old art shed down there. So I started going there when Gabrielle [Gabrielle Sullivan: former Manager of Martumili Artists] used to work there. I used to go there when I was a bit young. Then I came to this art shed [current Martumili premises]. So I went on trips down like to Perth, for a bit, and Sydney, Melbourne. And yeah, just coming to Martumili every day. Glenn and Bec [photographers Glenn Iseger-Pilkington and Rebecca Dagnall] came here and we went down to
Tamisha was born in Port Hedland hospital in 1996 and grew up around Newman where she attended Newman Primary School and Newman Senior High School. Tamisha’s mother grew up around Jigalong Community and her father in Wiluna, Tamisha spent a good part of her youth visiting these areas along with her six brothers and sisters. Tamisha’s Nanna and Pop sometimes take the family hunting for bush tucker in the swamp area yurlparirra [south] of Newman. While on Country, family members help make a fire and enjoy a cup of tea and storytelling, passing on family tradition and culture. Tamisha has been painting with Martumili since she was eight years old and has recently started helping out around the art centre in Newman with sales and events. Tamisha also works with Martu youth in and around town for the YMCA. She is a great role model for younger kids and is proud to be passing on her own cultural traditions and practices.
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Rivergum [workers’ village outside of Newman], and Glenn showed us how to do exposure and ISO, learned us how to use camera. So that’s why I started using camera, taking photos, like of some of the old peoples here. And yeah, when I go out on trips to communities I just take photos. I just like taking photos of people, you know doing painting, or taking a photo about the landscape you know when you’re out on Country? …and then when we’re out on like Country, like when I want to take photos of people I just tell them, ‘just get in front so I can take a photo of you!’
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2020 How Did I Get Here? (Martumili Artists and the Art Gallery of Western Australia), Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
That was at the community, Parnpajinya Community [Aboriginal community in Newman]. I just took a photo about it. There was like a water from a pipe. And the water got big and then I just took a photo of that. It was my mum’s house.
Revealed Exhibition 2020: New & Emerging WA Aboriginal Artists, Fremantle Arts Centre, Fremantle, WA
Tamisha Williams, 2020
2018 Pujiman, Martumili Artists and Spinifex Hill Artists, Port Hedland Courthouse Gallery, Port Hedland and Martumili Artists, Newman, WA, followed by Western Australian state tour, 2018-2020
Parnpajinya Reflection 2019 - Tamisha Williams
2017 After the Rains, Martumili Gallery, Newman, WA
Digital photograph Dimensions variable
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Golden Hour 2 2019 - Tamisha Williams Digital photograph Dimensions variable
This was in Kunawarritji, 33 (Well 33 on the Canning Stock Route). So I went out for a drive in the afternoon time to the car yard and that’s when I just took photos of that. It’s like, all the wrecked cars. Tamisha Williams, 2020
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Melbourne Dress Up 2019 - Tamisha Williams
I went down to Melbourne for that Chapman Bailey [exhibition at Chapman & Bailey Gallery], so we can learn a little bit more skills about priming and stretching canvas. I was doing a photoshoots with some friends. Alice [Martumili Field officer Alice Boardman] just took us to her friend’s house and then we was just taking photos and like doing dress up and taking photos of us. Alice, and my little sister Montana and Liz and Kate [Liz Chadwick and Kate Foley, former Martumili volunteers], and Warta [former Martumili Field officer Andrew Wood] Then we flew back to Perth for Revealed [annual emerging Aboriginal art survey exhibition]. Tamisha Williams, 2020
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
Digital photograph Dimensions variable
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ABOUT
ABOUT
FORM is an independent, non-profit cultural organisation established in 1968 that develops and advocates excellence in creativity and artistic practice in Western Australia. FORM sees creativity as a catalyst for positive change and shares the philosophy that the best, most vibrant places to live are ones that nurture dynamic creativity, showcase cultural diversity, insist on quality and are shaped with people in mind. FORM’s activities span high-level artist development and exhibitions, place-making, social and multicultural engagement, cultural infrastructure development, Aboriginal cultural maintenance, research, and advocacy. These activities are connected by the exploration of artistic excellence, whether through processes or outcomes. FORM is based in Perth, Western Australia, and since 2006 has maintained a regional office in Port Hedland.
Martumili Artists was established in 2006 by Martu people living in the communities of Parnpajinya (Newman), Jigalong, Parnngurr, Punmu, Kunawarritji, Irrungadji and Warralong. The artists and their families are the traditional custodians of vast stretches of the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts as well as the Karlamilyi (Rudall River) area. Most Martu people maintained an entirely independent, nomadic desert lifestyle until the 1950s and 1960s when they walked into settlements and missions in response to a long and severe drought. Today, Martu people live in their own communities and regularly visit regional centres such as Newman and Port Hedland. Martumili Artists is based in the East Pilbara Arts Centre in Newman, with artists working in the six other remote East Pilbara communities.
FORM
Martumili Artists
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
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Judith Anya Samson with her artwork, 2020.
FORM building a state of creativity, inc. 39 Gugeri Street, Claremont, Western Australia, 6010 mail@form.net.au +61 8 9385 2200 Published by FORM building a state of creativity, October, 2020. Photographs on pages 11-12, 21-22, 23, 30, 31-32, 33, 46 and 47 are by Taryn Hays, courtesy of FORM. All other images are courtesy of Martumili Artists. Catalogue text by Andrew Nicholls, Martumili Artists, and the participating artists. Artwork stories transcribed by Alice Boardman, Emilia Galatis, Ruth Leigh and Andrew Nicholls for Martumili Artists. What Now? was curated by Amy Mukherjee (Martumili Artists) and Andrew Nicholls (FORM), for FORM’s project space, The Goods Shed, Claremont, in 2020. Designed by Ryan Stephenson. Printed by Scott Print. © 2020. All rights reserved. Copyright for photographic images is held by FORM, Martumili Artists and the individual photographers. Copyright for written content and this publication is held by FORM or the individual writers. www.form.net.au martumili.com.au ISBN: 978-0-9872624-2-4 This book was conceived and written mostly on the lands of Nyoongar people, the traditional owners of Nyoongar Boodja. FORM respects and acknowledges all of Australia’s traditional owners, and their Elders past, present and emerging, and is grateful for the privilege of living and working on Nyoongar Country.
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What Now?
The next generation of Martumili Artists Presented by FORM and Martumili Artists
7 October - 20 December, 2020
Curated by
Government Support
Front cover image: Emu Tracks to Puntawarri (detail) 2019 - Judith Anya Samson Acrylic on canvas 61 x 91 cm
Principal Partner
Gallery Partner
What Now? - The next generation of Martumili Artists
at The Goods Shed 4 Shenton Road, Claremont, Western Australia, 6010