10-1291 – Pukina Burton (dec.)

This painting depicts some large yinta (rockholes with permanent water) in the artist’s country, called Urnapai & Wirltun.

This work depicts a yinta (permanent spring) within the artists’ ngurra (home Country, camp), typically represented with circular forms. Yinta represent a reliable source of water and were traditionally used as camping sites throughout the year. 

During the pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) period, knowledge of water sources was critical for survival, and today Martu Country is still defined in terms of the location and type of water. Each of the hundreds of claypans, rockholes, waterholes, soaks and springs found in the Martu desert homelands is known through real life experience and the recounting of jukurrpa (dreamtime) narratives by name, location, quality and seasonal availability. This encyclopedic knowledge extends even to the nature and movement of arterial waterways, and sustained Martu as they travelled across their Country, hunting and gathering, visiting family, and fulfilling ceremonial obligations. They would traverse very large distances annually, visiting specific areas in the dry and wet season depending on the availability of water and the corresponding cycles of plant and animal life on which hunting and gathering bush tucker was reliant.