Ngurra kuju walyja
All these waters, from that line to this line, are all our family trees. Where our mob used to go from one waterhole to another, all as one people. This is our family tree, this painting.
Jeffrey James, Kilykily (Well 36), 2007
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Warlayirti artist Eubena (Yupinya) Nampitjin with her granddaughter at Balgo. Photo: Tim Acker, 2008.
Walyja means 'family', but in a much wider sense than many non-Aboriginal people may be familiar with. In the Country crossed by the stock route, the experience of kinship and family is shaped by the desert's harsh environment, which required extensive travel and cooperation between distant groups. Here family ties include social and cultural, as well as genealogical, relationships, linking artists from the central desert to the Kimberley coast.
Ngurra kuju walyja is the term used by desert people to describe what binds them to each other. Translated literally as 'Country one family', it encapsulates two seemingly contradictory ideas: that all of the people who belong to the desert Country are related as one family, and that there are many distinct cultural and linguistic family groups, all with specific responsibilities for their own areas. Although proud of their distinctive identities, these language groups are united by their shared kinship, histories, ceremonies and relationships to Country.
When the Canning Stock Route was opened up to droving, it led to new connections being forged between peoples without previous cultural or historical ties. Aboriginal stockmen and women from Balgo, Billiluna and Fitzroy Crossing married and settled in Wiluna, thereby establishing familial ties between the northern and southern ends of the stock route, which remain strong today.
But these new patterns of movement also caused many families to be split apart, as brothers, sisters, parents, uncles, aunts and grandparents journeyed in different directions at different times. Some followed the drovers north or south; others shunned the sometimes dangerous stock route and travelled east and west. Most settled at the missions, stations, towns and settlements on the peripheries of the deserts. During periods of drought, relatives who had earlier come into these settlements sent back word of the abundant food supplies to be found there.
In these new places, many people were not only far from their traditional homes but also separated from their closest relatives. Some would not be reunited for decades. Others returned to the desert, looking for family members who had stayed behind, or because they felt homesick for Country and for the old ways of life. Some of the last desert people to make the permanent transition from nomadic life to life in a community were the families of couples who had chosen self-imposed exile for marrying in defiance of traditional marriage laws.
Fortunately, today these families are able to maintain close connections with their relatives across the desert. Much as they did in the past, Aboriginal people still visit their kin regularly, for ceremonial, social and familial reasons. It is just that now they make their way across the vast distances by bus, car or plane.
Kunawarritji to Wajaparni, 2007
Jeffrey James, Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi, Patrick Tjungurrayi, Peter Tinker, Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Richard Yukenbarri Tjakamarra, Clifford Brooks and Putuparri Tom Lawford, acrylic on canvas, 125.2 x 301 cm
This collaborative men's painting was produced by artists from five art centres. It illuminates the nature of the family relationships, which are grounded in Country.
This was where our people got together as one, along these wells. Our grandfathers too. They was all as one people, don't matter [that they they're from] different tribes. They came here, stay for a while, and then go back home.
Patrick Olodoodi (Alatuti) Tjungurrayi, Kilykily (Well 36), 2007
Crisscrossing this region — and the painting — are multiple Dreaming tracks that include important stories which, under Aboriginal law, are restricted to initiated men. Working under the guidance of the senior men, Jeffrey James and Patrick Tjungurrayi, each artist painted that part of Country with which he has close family ties.
All these waters, from that line to this line, are all our family trees. Where our mob used to go from one waterhole to another, all as one people. This is our family tree, this painting.
Jeffrey James, Kilykily (Well 36), 2007
Puntawarri, 2007
Pukarlyi Milly Kelly, and Hayley Atkins, Martumili Artists,
acrylic on linen, 125 x 79.5 cm
Puntawarri. My home. I was walking around little naked one!
Pukarlyi Milly Kelly, Jigalong, 2009
Puntawarri is the Country where Pukarlyi grew up as a young girl. This painting is a collaborative work by Pukarlyi and her granddaughter, Hayley Atkins, one of the curators of this exhibition.
Old people don't talk too much. I didn't know my family were bush people till I did that painting with Milly. Now I want to know everything.
Hayley Atkins, Billiluna, 2009
Puntawarri, 2007
Pukarlyi Milly Kelly, Martumili Artists, acrylic on linen, 46.2 x 45 cm
This painting depicts Puntawarri, west of Well 17 on the Canning Stock Route, which is Milly's traditional Country or Ngurra. The yellow arc represents the traditional shelter, or mangkaja, which housed her family in the bush before they settled in Jigalong. This is Milly's home.
Tika Tika, 2008
Nola Campbell, Kayili Artists and Birriliburu Artists, Tjukurba Gallery, acrylic on linen, 151.8 x 101.2 cm
My family and I were walking around in that [central stock route] Country. As a little girl I carried the water. I was following my uncles and my father, Walapayi [Charlie Wallabi Tjungurrayi], who raised me. I used to chase him around when I was little, to get meat. He's my young father. My mother is Josephine [Nangala], my own mother's younger sister.
The Tika Tika rock holes were made by Ngirntaka, the perentie goanna. Ngirntaka stopped here for one night during the Jukurrpa before continuing west on his journey towards Warburton.
Many people lived at Tika Tika before Patjarr community was established, including Nola, who camped here as a young girl with her father, and her uncles and aunties.
Wantili (Well 25) to Wuranu (Well 29), 2007
Lily Long, May Brooks and Sarah Brooks, Martumili Artists, acrylic on linen, 150 x 76 cm
Wantili is significant because this is where Kartujarra, Manyjilyjarra, Putujarra and Warnman people all come together. It is a jurnu (soak) and a claypan, where Jukurrpa women threw seeds. Well 25 is located close to Wantili at Yilkarr, but because of the site's significance this well is usually referred to as Wantili.
