The Martu people were originally speakers of various Wati languages in the Western Desert dialect continuum whose identity coalesced after coming into increased contact with one another after the establishment of Jigalong.
[1] In 1974 Norman Tindale wrote that the term had been applied to several groups in this area, among them the Kartudjara, and had no tribal significance but simply denoted that the people there had undergone full initiation.
Larger communities like Parnngurr consist of smaller "hearth groups", collections of individuals with familial connections that co-reside in camps around shelters supplied by the government.
During cold months, when these groups start living within the shelters, sleeping spaces are divided based on age and kinship, but elders usually maintain the whole residence.
[1] The creation of the Canning Stock Route in 1906–07 was a brutal time for many Martu people, who were forced to serve as guides and reveal water sources after being run down by men on horseback, restrained by heavy chains and tied to trees at night.
While they did incorporate market goods into their economy, their communion at Jigalong served their realisation of common interests and identities as Martu more than it did their assimilation to European institutions.
[8] Despite movement towards Jigalong, some Martu had not seen white people before the 1960s, but knew of them from their ancestors, who had generally avoided them since the creation of the Canning Stock Route, though some groups, especially when heavy rains secured better water sources, to move north towards stations and missions.
In May of that year two patrol officers, Walter MacDougall and Terry Long, tasked with ensuring that the target area south of the Percival Lakes was clear of Aboriginal people, sighted a small clan of Martu, consisting of 20 women and children.
[10] Terrified of the white men's four-wheeled Jeeps, which they thought were monstrous "moving rocks", the women managed to evade attempts to discover them for four months, living off what to native eyes is a zone, though extremely arid, rich in food.
Eventually Nyani, who spoke a language the women could understand, sent messages through to the main group, which then decided to come in, joining MacDougall and Sailor at their camp.
By the time the mission at Jigalong terminated in 1969, many Martu had moved away in recognition of their common need in self determination and formed their own settlements at Punmu, Kunawaritji, and Parnngurr.
The painting itself is at the same time on display in Berlin, Germany, as part of a travelling exhibition called Songlines: Tracking the Seven Sisters,[15] which originated at the National Gallery of Australia in 2017.
[16] The regular obligatory time commitments that come with waged labour tend to discourage Martu from pursuing it as social obligations are usually prioritised.
[1] All Martu receive welfare which, together with art sales and waged labour, allows them to purchase the fuel that they need to forage while maintaining a centralised community.
Older women with extensive knowledge of the landscape light brush fires in order to expose the hiding places of the goanna that have burrowed into the ground.
[19] Controlled brush burning, generally practised in the colder months from April to October, helps maintain much of the indigenous vegetation by removing invasive grass species.
Tightly monitored burns additionally help prevent large, uncontrolled wildfires that can occur due to extremely high temperatures and dry plants and grasses.