Natawalu: The helicopter story

Men with helicopter at Natawalu, with Warlayirti artist Kamara Brandy Tjungurrayi ('That's me, the good looking one') second from right.
Photo: John Veevers, 1957 John Veevers Collection, Audiovisual Archive, AIATSIS.

The people of the Western Desert moved across their land in a rhythm determined by the seasons and by their social and ceremonial duties. The coming of the drovers, however, introduced different kinds of movement and different reasons to move. The drovers brought with them intriguing new things from the world beyond the desert: beef, tea, flour, sugar, tobacco, new medicines. The desert people sometimes followed the drovers and helped them in return for such goods. In the end, many followed the stock route out of the desert and onto cattle stations, such as Billiluna, or missions, like Balgo and Jigalong. But not all families took this path. And not everyone walked out of the desert, as is shown by the story of 'Helicopter' Tjungurrayi.

In 1957 a mining survey party came across a group of people living near Natawalu (Well 40). Some of these people had never seen white men before. None had seen a helicopter. Ten-year-old Tjungurrayi was seriously ill, so the survey team flew him and his mother's sister, who was also ill, north to Balgo for medical attention. When they failed to return, their worried family members began travelling north in groups.

My young brother [Helicopter] was so sick; he had sores everywhere and he was helpless, a little boy. I grabbed my little brother and showed them. So kartiya looked at his sores and said, 'OK, we'll take him,' because he was so sick. So I asked the kartiya, 'Are you going to bring him back?' He was speaking his language and I was speaking my language. I kept on saying, 'Are you going to bring him back?'

I waited, waited, waited for long and I wondered, 'They're not bringing him back!' Nothing. It was getting a bit longer, and I said to myself, I think I'll go after him north. From there I kept walking right, long way, all the way to Balgo.

Charlie Wallabi (Walapayi) Tjungurrayi, 2007

The initial contact between the helicopter crew and the local families was marked by fear and confusion on both sides. Patrick Olodoodi (Alatuti) Tjungurrayi remembers those first cross-cultural exchanges:

It landed. We said, 'Manurrkunurrku [wasp] sat down'. We didn't call it helicopter then. We called it manurrkunurrku. 'Well, let's go look for it,' we said That's when we came down from the sandhill carrying spears.

James Ferguson, the helicopter pilot, found himself confronted with a group of Aboriginal men dragging their spears between their toes: 'Matman grabbed the .303 and I pulled out my revolver but all was OK. They stuck their spears in the ground'. Patrick recalls that it was his brother, Charlie Wallabi (Walapayi) Tjungurrayi, who intervened:

'Put them spears down,' he told us. We put them down and started walking towards him.

Despite the initial tension, relations between the crew and the family group warmed as they interacted and shared food. These encounters are remembered with fond humour today:

We asked Brandy [Tjungurrayi] to go and ask them if we can get kapi [water] from the well. He went and told that kartiya, [in Kukatja] 'Are you listening to me? Kapi!'

'Kopi? Ahh, you want coffee,' [the whitefella] said. He filled up a billycan with coffee and gave it to him. Then he brought it over to us. I had a look and saw that it was black. 'What the hell is this black water?' I said. It smelt different too.

All of the artists featured in this section were witness to, or had relatives who were present during, the events at Natawalu.

Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Warlayirti Artists, acrylic on linen, 94 x 64.5 cm

Waruwiya [soak] and Pilalyi rock hole. I lived around here with my mother and father. Nyirla is our Country. I was walking around everywhere in that Country, that was the last time.

[Then] we travelled to them waterholes on the Canning Stock Road, until we came closer to Natawalu. That's where we saw a helicopter for the first time.

Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Warlayirti Artists, acrylic on linen, 76.9 x 53.4 cm

Helicopter created this painting to tell the story of his dramatic departure from the desert. The larger circle is Natawalu (Well 40) and the smaller one is Ngankangarra, a nearby water source, where his family had been camped.

I was walking around long time, but I got sick that's when that helicopter got me He came [in a helicopter] and put it down at my father's camp. He spoke to me not in Kukatja, but in English. I was sitting there puzzled. I spoke to him in Kukatja, 'Take me to Balgo to the medicine'. They put me on the helicopter right there, me and my mother.

They took us to the old [Balgo] mission. It was the first time they saw a helicopter too; even me, first time they seen me too. They were asking who my parents were. I told them then they knew me through my parents. Then I went to Derby [hospital]. After I got better they took me back to Balgo and I'm still here today.

Christine Yukenbarri, Warlayirti Artists, acrylic on linen, 150 x 74.5 cm

Christine is the daughter of two of Balgo's most famous artists: Helicopter Tjungurrayi and Lucy Yukenbarri. She has painted her mother's Country south of Balgo and east of the Canning Stock Route. Winpurpula, the central circle, is a yinta or 'living water'. Lukarrara (a type of seed) and bush fruits, such as kumpupatja (bush tomato), grow there. The strong lines in the painting are the tali (sandhills) that dominate this Country.

Warlayirti Artists Collection

Elizabeth Nyumi, Warlayirti Artists, acrylic on linen, 156 x 79 cm

They [the helicopter crew] got the food and kept putting it under the tree. We didn't know what they were doing so we got up and went to our living camp, to bush food.

This painting shows the abundant bush tucker found in Nyumi's Country. Represented here are munyunpa (plum bush), lungki (witchetty grubs) and walku (quandong).

Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi, Papunya Tula Artists, acrylic on linen,
77 x 50.8 cm

Nyaru is the artist's Country south-west of Kiwirrkura. Tjungurrayi painted this story at Lipuru (Well 37), when he travelled the Canning Stock Route for the last time in 2007.

Prior to the events at Natawalu in 1957, the artist had speared a drover's camel near Wajaparni (Well 38), and had been poisoned in retaliation by white men. He lived to tell the tale, but was understandably wary of the food offered by the helicopter crew.

Might be poison they cooked up porridge and gave some for me to try. I said 'He's probably trying to kill me'. He was just feeding me so I can eat and die and when I'm dead he's going to put me in the waru [fire] and eat me.

I watched him carefully that he chewed and swallowed. And then I gave my piece back to him to watch him eat it and make sure it was ok. I start speaking in my language saying, 'I'm the only one bravely talking on behalf of all these people, you're probably going to feed us all and kill us and eat us'.