An etching of her country by Kumpaya Girgirba
Kumpaya Girgiba paints her country, 2009

Kumpaya Girgirba was born near Kiwirrkurra and walked all around that area with her family as a young girl until, in the 1960s. ‘The whitefellas took the family to Jigalong, ending the pujiman [traditional] days.’ Some 40 years later, she unerringly named these water sources as she scratched their outlines into the negative’s emulsion. They make up one part of Kumpaya’s country in the Great Sandy Desert.

Working from the bottom left, Kumpaya laid out: Juntujuntu, Mujingarra, Yarturti, Yutungu, Minjaka, Wirulkujapayi, Purlpurl, Yunapayi, Panayurl, Mukurlany yinta, Murlakurtu, Wurulkurra yinta, Pinkari, Nankatakata rock well, Wurinyi rock well, Yuminkaja, Kiriji, Wuntitayina jurnu, Kuntipuntinya, Kawaijartu rock well, Yurinyina, Marangukunkarlu, Yujinjarra and Yirrlka jurnu.

Type C print from large format Polaroid Type 665

Etching by subject

Parnngurr, Western Australia