Kunawarritji 2008, by Nora Wompi Nungurrayi 100x50cm

Kunawarritji 2008, by Nora Wompi Nungurrayi is a vibrant, flowing depiction of some of her country located near Kunawarritji (Well 33), far to the south west of Balgo aroung the middle stretches of the Canning Stock Route. The lines in the painting represent the tali (sand hills) that dominate this country. This is good country for collecting bush foods including pura (bush tomato) and kantjilyi (bush raisin).

Kunawarritji is a very significant site for artist Nora Wompi. It is a community of great cultural significance to all Martu people in the western desert and is where many ceremonies take place, with tribal groups meeting there from neighbouring regions. The settlement was established in the early 1980s by a group of Martu people from Punmu and is 5 kilometres north-west of Well 33 along the Canning Stock route, south west of Balgo, a small mission settlement located on the edge of the vast desert basin of far north Western Australia.

Following text from Martumili

Wompi was a Manyjilyjarra and Kukatja woman, born c 1939 in the Great Sandy Desert at Lipuru (Libral Well, Canning Stock Route Well 37). She grew up in the desert between Punmu and Kunawarritji (Canning Stock Route Well 33) and further northward. When she was young, her parents would go hunting and leave her in the care of her older brother. Following the death of both of her brothers she stayed with her family until she was able to hunt for herself, but eventually decided in her early twenties that she, like many of her relatives, would leave the desert. Nomadic life was harsh, and even more so during the prolonged and severe drought in the Western Desert during the 1960’s.

Together with her close friend Nora Nungabar (Nyangapa), Wompi followed drovers travelling along the Canning Stock Route north to Balgo Mission, where she lived with her mother and worked baking bread and tending to goats. Wompi met her husband at Balgo mission, and together they travelled to Fitzroy Crossing, where she lived with him until his death. Wompi then returned to Kunawarritji to be with her close relatives, where she remained until her passing in 2017.

Wompi was a prolific painter and evocative storyteller, with deep knowledge about the Country surrounding her home at Kunawarritji. For many years she painted alongside Nungabar with both Martumili and Warlayirti Artists. Wompi was highly regarded for her beautifully etheral style. Her work has been exhibited in galleries internationally and throughout Australia, and acquired by the National Museum of Australia and the National Gallery of Victoria. She died in 2017.

Provenance: Certificate Warlayirti Artists, Balgo # 459/08