Angampa Martin was born in the 1940s at Watala, a rockhole south-east of Irrunytju. She is a senior Pitjantjatjara artist. As a child she lived in the bush. “My country and my father’s country is Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Water-Snake Men Dreaming). I grew up there at a rockhole called Umal. Kaliny-kalinypa (honey grevillea) grows there.”
When she was a teenager Martin travelled to the mission at Ernabella where she learnt to spin wool, weave and make rugs. While spinning and weaving were introduced at Ernabella in 1948, Martin had learnt to spin hair and fur on a fragile hand held spindle made of acacia twigs in the bush from her mother and aunties. They used the hair twine to make head and waist-bands; mawulyari (ceremonial womens’ hair belts); and manguri (head rings). Drawing on the intimate knowledge of her country gained by living a sem-nomadic lifestyle with her family, Martin refers to aspects of the Wati Kutjara Tjukurpa (Two Water-Snake Men Dreaming) in her work.
' Tjukurpa malupa (true dreaming).’ Two men, a father and son, travelled across the country from rockhole to rockhole. On their way to Pirulungka they turned into water-snakes. The father left his son at a big rockhole to grow up, but the anangu there did not want him to stay. They thought he was odd because he was awkward, looked strange and had big googly eyes. They were cruel to him, did not share their food and made it difficult for him to get to the water. When the father heard how the anangu were treating his son he was furious and went back and took him away. The son grew up hurt, angry and wanting revenge. When he was a man he went back to the rockhole and ate all the anangu there – men, women and children – killing everybody except for one man who was hiding behind a rock. As he crawled away he was so full that he vomited blood, fat and hair. The man that survived speared the snake in the side, splitting him open and killing him. The tracks made by the two water-snake men and where the son was sick and speared marked the land.
Martin uses traditional visual imagery to retell the tjukurpa, revealing the epic journey of the two men, showing the contours of the land and referring implicitly to the sacred sites where the events happened. While the imagery and narrative are traditional, Martin uses a startling palette of discordant acrylic colours – lime-greens, missionary brown, mandarin orange, yellow, pale blue – which evoke the emotional intensity of the narrative.
- Writers:
- Knights, Mary
- Date written:
- 2006
- Last updated:
- 2011
