Martumili Artists
Martumili Artists was established by Martu people after consideration of other desert artists’ experiences of the art market. The Martu are the traditional owners of a vast area of the Great Sandy, Little Sandy and Gibson Deserts. Their country stretches from the Percival Lakes in the north, to Lake Disappointment in the south, and runs east, across the Canning Stock Route to the WA/NT border. The Martu are one people, encompassing Manyjilyjarra, Kartujarra, Putijarra and Warnman language speakers.
Most Martu people maintained an entirely independent, nomadic desert lifestyle until the 1950s and 1960s when they walked into settlements 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.
One way in which Martumili Artists has been responsive to the wishes of the Martu artists as a group has been by establishing art spaces and studios which allow artists to work in their own communities. Since most of the communities are separated by a half days’ drive, this has been logistically complex, but remains critical to the success of a distinctively Martu arts centre.
The strength of Martu artists’ commitment to artistic practice is visible not only in their artwork, but also in the markedly independent, rigorous and practical path Martu people followed in establishing Martumili Artists. Making artworks, and managing the way those artworks are sold and exhibited are key ways in which Martu people are working to keep their culture strong.
Bugai Whyoulter's - Pintu Pintu
$4,840 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's -¶ÿPintu Pintu
Pintu Pintu. This painting portrays Pintu Pintu. Pintu Pintu is a jurnu (rockhole place) with tuwa (sandhills) all around. It is not far from the community of Parnngurr, which the artist regularly visits.
Size: 122cm x 91cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas¶ÿ
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
$1,270 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
This painting is a collaboration between Bugai Whyoulter and her niece Betty Whyoulter. It depicts an area in the country where Bugai lived and travelled throughout the pujiman (bush) days with her family. She travelled from what is now Balfour Downs Station where she was born, all around the Parnngurr area and up and down the Canning Stock Route as far as Kunawarritji. Kunawarritji is also known as Well 33 and is now her Ngurra (home) community. Bugai has extensive knowledge of all of this area and loves to sit with Betty teaching her how to paint her country.
Size: 61cm x 46cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
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Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
$2,420 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
Untitled. This painting depicts an area in the artist's country where she lived and travelled extensively throughout the pujiman (bush) days with her family. She travelled from what is now Balfour Downs station where she was born, all around the Parnngurr area and up and down the Canning Stock Route as far as Kunawarritji. Kunawarritji is also known as well 33 and is now her Ngurra (home) community. Bugai has extensive knowledge of all of this area and loves to paint and tell the stories of her country.
Size: 61cm x 91cm
Medium: Acrylic on linen
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
$1,210 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
Untitled. This painting depicts an area in the artist's country where she lived and travelled extensively throughout the pujiman (bush) days with her family. She travelled from what is now Balfour Downs station where she was born, all around the Parnngurr area and up and down the Canning Stock Route as far as Kunawarritji. Kunawarritji is also known as well 33 and is now her Ngurra (home) community. Bugai has extensive knowledge of all of this area and loves to paint and tell the stories of her country.
Size: 61cm x 46cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
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Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
$1,430 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's - Untitled
Untitled. This painting depicts an area in the artist's country where she lived and travelled extensively throughout the pujiman (bush) days with her family. She travelled from what is now Balfour Downs station where she was born, all around the Parnngurr area and up and down the Canning Stock Route as far as Kunawarritji. Kunawarritji is also known as well 33 and is now her Ngurra (home) community. Bugai has extensive knowledge of all of this area and loves to paint and tell the stories of her country.
Size: 76cm x 46cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Bugai Whyoulter's - Wantili
$4,070 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter's - Wantili
Wantili. Wantili is also known as Well 24 on the Canning Stock Route. The area is dominated by claypans surrounded by tuwa (sandhills). This is not far from the artist's home country. Bugai returned as a young woman, driving cattle along the Stock Route.
Size: 122cm x 76cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Bugai Whyoulter's - Wantili Claypan
$4,840 AUD
Bugai Whyoulter 's - Wantili Claypan
Wantili is also known as Well 24 on the Canning Stock Route. The area is dominated by claypans surrounded by tuwa (sandhills). This is not far from the artist's home country. She returned here as a young woman, driving cattle along the Stock Route.
Size: 121cm x 91cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Cyril Whyoulter's - 33 Area - Kunawarritji
$715 AUD
Cyril Whyoulter's - 33 Area - Kunawarritji
Size: 46cm x 60cm
Medium: Acrylic on Canvas
Nana Bugai used to walk around here when she was a girl. The gapi (water) and sand hills, the bigger ones in this painting are the long time water the others are small soaks still water but not all the time.
Kunawarritji is an important site in the Great Sandy Desert whee multiple stories and histories intersect. In the Jukurrpa (dreamtime) period, the Seven Sisters stopped here and shaped a number of the landforms before continuing on their long journey east. During the pujiman (nomadic desert dweller) era, the site was an important yinta (permanent water source), where families stopped and camped for long periods each year. At the turn of the 20th century Kunawarritji was converted into a well (Well 33) along the 1850km long Canning Stock Route, created as a means to drove cattle through the harsh Western Australian desert. Each year throughout the 1930-50s, the well became a site of contact between drovers, their cattle, and desert families. Today, Kunawarritji community is a site of return, a place where Martu people have come back to continue making their life in the desert..
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Dadda Samson's - Puntawarri
$3,740 AUD
Dadda Samson's - Puntawarri
Size: 76cm x 152cm
Medium: Acrylic on Linen
This painting depicts Puntawarri, the artists' family's country. Puntawarri is on the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route, near Well 17 also known as Durba Springs. Puntawarri is an important cultural area, east of the Jigalong Aboriginal Community, where the artist now lives with her family. The artist frequently travelled and hunted with her family in this area when she was a young girl, and is now teaching her grandchildren the stories for this country.
Martumili Artists was established in late 2006 and supports Martu artists in Kunawarritji, Punmu, Parnngurr, Jigalong, Warralong, Irrungadji (Nullagine) and Parnpajinya (Newman). Many Martu artists have close relationships with established artists amongst Yulparija, Kukatja and other Western Desert peoples and are now gaining recognition in their own right for their diverse, energetic and unmediated painting styles. Their works reflect the dramatic geography and scale of their homelands in the Great Sandy Desert and Rudall River regions of Western Australia. Martumili Artists represents speakers of Manyjilyjarra, Warnman, Kartujarra, Putijarra and Martu Wangka languages, many of whom experienced first contact with Europeans in the 1960s. The artists include painters, working in acrylics and oils, as well as weavers coiling baskets and sculptors working in wood, grass and wool. Martu artists proudly maintain their creative practices whilst pursuing social and cultural obligations across the Martu homelands.
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Jakayu Biljabu's - Untitled
$7,040 AUD
Jakayu Biljabu's - Untitled
This painting portrays part of the artist's country where their family lived traditionally during the pujiman (bush) days. The Martu lived very nomadically moving from water source to water source to water source hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances visiting some areas in the dry and some in the wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.
Size: 152cm x 106cm
Medium: Acrylic on linen
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Jakayu Biljabu's - Wantili
$5,060 AUD
Jakayu Biljabu's -Wantili
Wantili is a big lyinji (clay pan) near Well 24 on the Canning Stock Route.The area is dominated by claypans surrounded by tuwa (sandhills). The artist travelled all throughout this country when she was younger during the pujiman (bush) days. After the rain there is a lot of water in the claypan and people still love to visit there regularly.
Size: 152cm x 76cm
Medium: Acrylic on linen
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Lily Jatarr Long's - Untitled
$2,640 AUD
Lily Jatarr Long's - Untitled
This painting portrays physical elements of Martu Country such as the dominant tali (sandhills), warta (trees, vegetation), and water sources. Rock holes, waterholes, soaks and springs were all extremely important sites for the Martu people during the pujiman (nomadic bush) era, with many important jukurrpa (dreamtime stories) chronicling the creation of these landmarks. In the past the Martu lived nomadically, moving from water source to water source, and hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.
Size: 91cm x 91cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
May Chapman - Untitled
$3,740 AUD
May Chapman - Untitled
Untitled. This painting portrays part of the artist's country where their family lived traditionally during the pujiman (bush) days. The Martu lived very nomadically moving from water source to water source hunting and gathering bush tucker as they went. They would traverse very large distances visiting some areas in the dry and some in the wet season depending on the availability of water. As they travelled and hunted they would also burn areas of country creating a larger diversity of plant and animal life.
Size: 152cm x 76cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
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Mukki Taylor's - Kulyakartu
$1,530 AUD
Mukki Taylor's - Kulyakartu
Kulyakartu. This painting depicts Kulyakartu, an area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes in the northern Great Sandy Desert. The artist has extensive knowledge of the country of this region. He grew up living traditionally during the pujiman (bush) days with his family.
Size: 61cm x 61cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Please note the price does not include delivery
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Mukki Taylor's - Kulyakartu
$3,520 AUD
Mukki Taylor's - Kulyakartu
Kulyakartu. This painting depicts Kulyakartu, an area in the far north of the Martu homelands, near the Percival Lakes in the northern Great Sandy Desert. The artist has extensive knowledge of the country of this region. He grew up living traditionally during the pujiman (bush) days with his family.
Size: 121cm x 76cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
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Nora Wompi - Kunawarritji Ngurra
$3,630 AUD
Nora Wompi - Kunawarritji Ngurra
Wompi paints the Country around her homelands of Kunawarritji, a place associated with the Minyipuru Jukurrpa, (Seven Sister Dreaming). In 1906, Kunawarrtiji also became a well on the Canning Stock Route and from an early age Wompi and her family had encounters with the white men who drove cattle along the route. As a young woman, Wompi followed the drovers north to Balgo Mission, where she stayed for many years. She learnt to paint there with her close friend, Eubena Nampitjin and returned to Kunawarritji, where she lives and paints today, when it became a community in its own right.
Size: 91cm x 91cm
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
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