Punmu Waterholes
Product Details
91 cm x 61 cm x 4 cm
Acrylic on Canvas
“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 cubby houses [bough shelters]. 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, camp). 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.”
“I was born in Jigalong, long me [ago in] Jigalong. The old people all got picked up and brought into Jigalong. Them old people all wanted to go back to the desert. We moved to Camp 61 [Ngalkuninya] for a lile while and then we all moved this way to Punmu. I was young, thirteen 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 of what I’m looking at, it looks nice. I want to do more painting like that. I like painting, it makes me feel good.
I’ve been in Jigalong with my father, learning to paint. I was watching him paint. I stayed with them all day, sometimes I help[ed] him and he told stories. Doing the dot paint, that’s when I learn[ed] on a little canvas.
”
- Marianne Burton
Marianne was born in Jigalong, moving briefly to Camp 61, an outpost on Bilanooka Station as a child, before settling in Punmu Community, where she still resides. Her father was senior Martu artist Pukina Burton. Marianne and her father used to sit down together, painting while Pukina told stories about his Country. One day Marianne would like to teach her children and grandchildren the same
stories; “Me and [my granddaughter] Azaniah 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.
