Wangkatjungka
Artists of the Great Sandy Desert

15 AM 4337/06
Nada Rawlins Four Waterholes near Kirriwirri 2004
Acrylic on canvas 1440 x 650mm $4300
Kirriwirri waterhole is where I was born. My father passed away in this country. . The water never dries up in
this jila (waterhole).. Near Kiriwirri there are lots of warla (claypans where water collects after rain, often salty).
You can see the lines of salt which are left when the water dries up in the warla .There are lots of yellow bush
flowers we call kawily kawily.

Linjalanyu waterhole is too salty water, too much camel, big mob. Only animals can drink there. People could
hunt that camel. Big warla, not little one, big one (salt area all around waterhole). You can’t walk out to water.
You might sink down. Like soak water, come from underneath.

Murtikujarra is called ‘Two Knees’ - this is why: Two people sit down in the Dreamtime, one man and mother-in-
law go there. Leave the wife behind, other side. Proper deep one, water right down. Deep one, like a well. Living
Water. Jila. Two knees, they call them same name as two knees. He been make em wife, of mother-in-law.
They been doing naughty thing.

Yurlpu Waterhole. All along jila, all along warla, salt lake country. A Jila is a living waterhole, a waterhole that
does not dry up, and Warla are claypans usually found in salt lake country.
This dreaming has been painted as and aerial view, in the tradition of ancient sand drawings. The word ‘country’
means a place plus it’s Dreaming. For indigenous people, a locality plus the spirits that reside there are what they
call ‘Country’.