Country

Ngundamurri, 2021, Ngurrawaana, Western Australia, single channel digital video with sound, 3 min 32 sec (looped); Courtesy Juluwarlu Art Group, © the artist | Juluwarlu Art Group.

Juluwarlu Arts Group - Ngundamurri

Juluwarlu Arts Group have put this installation together to share the experience of a Yindjibarndi men’s ngunda (dance and song gathering). Ngundamurri is an opportunity, and an invitation to be involved in this very special event. Artist, Wimiya Woodley, spoke to Rudi Bremer about his experience singing and dancing on Country and how good it feels to share this with his community and Country.

Do you like to sing and dance? Wimiya says that dancing can make you feel powerful, happy, and connected. How does the work in Tarnanthi make you feel? Can you move your body in a way that expresses these feelings? If you get nervous, take Wimiya’s advice:

“Don’t be frightened, get up and make all your people proud! You are strong, and you are powerful, and you can do it!” (In conversation with Rudi Bremer on Little Yarns)

Listen to A Littler Yarn with Wimiya Woodley

Bugai Whyoulter working on her canvas, Kunawarritji Community, Western Australia, 2023; Courtesy the artist and Martumili Artists.

Bugai Whyoulter

Kartujarra artist, Bugai Whyoulter, is deeply connected her Country. She and her family were pujiman people, a group who regularly travelled the Canning Stock route between the Great Sandy, Little Sandy, and Gibson deserts, approximately 2000kms. Bugai Whyoulter’s paintings are said to illustrate the mood of the landscape, and the emotion of place rather than a literal documentation. What mood do you sense from these large paintings? How does being in nature affect your emotions?

Write a song or poem of gratitude to a place you are connected to. Your home, somewhere you holiday, the place of your ancestors. What does this place provide for you? How does it surprise and delight, and challenge you?

Kunmanara (Ngilan) Dodd in front of her wall sculpture Waya munu Wuulta at Paralpi around Mimili Community on the APY Lands, 2023; Courtesy the family of Kunmanara (Ngilan) Dodd and Mimili Maku Arts.

Mrs Dodd

Mrs Dodd created these sculptures using wire from the fallen fences that her husband helped build during the early days of colonisation. Mrs Dodd, and her family, shepherded sheep on the land near Fregon, South Australia. The sculpture combines wire of the fences constructed on Country and the wool from the livestock the fences held. The natural sheep’s wool is spun to create yarn that is tightly wrapped around the wire to create forms that are then bound together, growing into the finished work.

Mrs Dodd referred to this work as a shelter, a dwelling space. It is an interesting idea that her home be disrupted by fences cutting through the landscape, and livestock introduced, but that Mrs Dodd would use the byproducts of these happenings and create a shelter.

Sketch your ideal shelter. Somewhere you are safe and comfortable. It could be made of anything you can imagine, and located wherever you wish.

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