Waruku Ngurra, Waruku Kuwiyi Martu People, Hun�Ng and ﬁre in the Western Desert

waruku ngurra, waruku kuwiyi Martu people, hunng and ﬁre in the western desert

Citation: Bliege Bird, Rebecca., Nyanlangka Taylor, Douglas W. Bird, Brian F. Codding, Curtis Taylor, and Fiona Walsh (2014) Waruku ngurra, waruku kuwiyi: Martu people, hunting, and ﬁre in the Western Desert, 2000-2010. Unpublished resource.

Rebecca Bliege Bird and Douglas W. Bird, Stanford University, USA Jurtujarra (sisters-in-law) hunting near Punmu head down a dune to continue hunting in a Nyalangka Taylor and Curtis Taylor, Parnngurr Aboriginal Community, Aus- burn lit earlier in the day, July 2007. tralia

Brian F. Codding, University of Utah, USA Warning: This booklet may contain images and ref- Fiona Walsh, CSIRO, Alice Springs, Australia erences to some people that are deceased. There may also be yumari on these pages. Please be sen- Cover photo: Nyalangka Taylor lights a ﬁre line in preparation to hunt for sitive to those kin that may feel kurnta in seeing or sand goanna near Parnngurr in July, 2005. hearing about these individuals.

i PREFACE

A hunting fire is lit to clear off a patch of old growth spinifex grass, near Parnngurr Aborigi- nal Community, July 2010.

This is the story of the research we have been doing since 2000 So many families helped to put this research together, that we can- when we first started working with Martu, the Traditional Owners of a not name them all here. Parnngurr, Punmu, Kunawarritji families, this large region of Australia’s Western Desert. It was funded by Stanford is our project together. It was your idea, and your work, together with University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, the Leakey Founda- our work and our analysis that made this a story that belongs to all tion, and the United States National Science Foundation, with sup- of us. You know all of this story already -- we just put it to English port from CSIRO, Rangelands NRM (especially Peter See), Martumili words and numbers to tell kartiya the proper story of how Martu live Artists, and Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (the Martu Cultural Knowledge Pro- and how important they are to the health of their country. ject, especially Peter Johnson and Sue Davenport). Neil Burrows It is also important that we thank our dear friends Gabrielle Sullivan, from the Department of the Environment and Conservation has pro- Bob and Myrna Tonkinson, Peter Veth, Jo McDonanald, and Brooke vided tremendous advice and assistance over many years, David Scelza, all of whom have worked with Martu for many years. Without Zeanah from California State University Sacramentao has helped col- them, combined with the kindness and tolerance of all of the Manyjil- lect a good deal of the data we discuss here, and Eric Smith from jarra, Warnman, and Kartujarra families, we would never have had University of Washington and Chris Parker at University of Utah were the opportunity to become walytja. fundamentally instrumental in getting this project up and running. ii We first came to Martu country with the hope of being able to partici- also creates more patches of manguu and kunarka (late stages of pate with people during regular hunting and gathering activities plant regrowth), which provide important homes for parnajarlpa and (what we will call ‘foraging’). We were really interested in the things other small animals. Without Martu hunting and fire there may be that influence decisions about foraging and how those decisions fewer of the animals that sustain people, fewer homes for small ani- shape the patterns of plants and animals on the land. We also mals, and less food for kirti-kirti and kipara. Without Martu making hoped that this information could be used by the Martu community in such things as their Native Title Land Claim (which was granted in 2002), and in working out policy to care for country according to Martu values. We have been so lucky to have been invited by Martu to continue to work and live with them over all of these years. Now we are always homesick when we are not in Parnngurr. This booklet describes how and why Martu hunt and burn country, tilila ngurra. It shows how country is different when Martu burn, compared to country that is not being looked after. It shows how Martu benefit from a properly burnt country, and how fire affects the plants and animals that are important to support life in the desert. Much of this research has been published elsewhere: we intend this booklet mostly for Martu and those that support them in the communities. Parnngurr community in 2010, looking toward the south. Today, many Martu live in three remote communities, Parnngurr, Punmu, and Kunawarritji. Most of our research was done in Parnn- gurr and Punmu, although we hunted and became family with many people who call Kunawarritji their ngurra. Our research has shown that Martu people belong to the country, and in nganinpa (gathering) and wartilpa (hunting), Martu kanyininpa ngurrara (hold country), and in so doing, kanyininpa jukurrpa (hold the law) and kanyininpa walytja (hold family). Through hunting, there is more of the food people and other animals need to eat to sur- vive and feed their families. Hunting with fire makes nyurnma, waru- waru, and nyukura, different stages of the plants that regrow after a fire that supply jinjiwirrily (desert raisin) and warmula (bush tomato), food for Martu, kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo), parnajarlpa (sand monitor, aka goanna) and kipara (bustard, aka bush turkey). Martu burning Punmu community in 2010, looking toward the west.

iii nyurnma (a new burn), rain and lightning cause big ﬁres which can kill many animals in one sweep. But hunting not only sustains the country, it sustains the people, and not just because it feeds people. Hunting also sustains networks of walytja kinship and family, the relationships that make possible the reproduction of life. Burning, sharing, hunting, family, country, men, women, jukurr: everything is linked together.

This booklet tries to tell that story.

Above is a photo of the authors with residents of Parnngurr and Punmu, along with Native American stu- dents from Stanford University, at Kurta-Kurta in Karlamilyi NP, Sep- tember 2009. Below left: Nyalangka Taylor (fore), and from left, Ivy Bidu, Nga- muru Bidu, and Nyeri Morgan preparing parnajarlpa (sand goanna) at a dinner-time camp near Parnn- gurr, June 2010. Below right: the patchy mosaic of vegetation created by Martu fires is clearly visible (from the mail plane) across the dunes south of Punmu, August 2010.

iv STRELLEY

Great Sandy Desert MARBLE BAR

Percival Lakes The Pilbara

NULLAGINE Great Sandy Desert PUNMU Lake Dora

KUNAWARRITJI

oute R k to c g S in n Balfour Downs n PARNNGURR a C na T Ethel Creek Talawa rack

Little Sandy Desert JIGALONG NEWMAN Lake CAPRICORN Disappointment

MARTU COMMUNITY Primary road Martu Native Title Lands OTHER COMMUNITY Maintained track Karlamily National Park

Station Unmaintained track Salt playa Desert watercourse

v CHAPTER 1 NGURRA (HOME COUNTRY) The track to Parnngurr from Karlamilyi, looking south to Nyukuwarta, 2007.

NGURRA-KARTI: COMING HOME TO MARTU COUNTRY

The journey to Parnngurr begins with a 1700 km trip north from Perth the three and a half billion year old banded iron of the Pilbara cra- on the Great Northern Highway, the most remote highway in the ton. world. There are three small villages in the first 300 km: New Norcia, Soon you head east on the Jigalong road, leaving the bitumen be- Dalwallinu, and Wubin. Between Wubin and Mt Magnet 300 km far- hind, passing through aeolian sand, dominated by endless stretches ther, there is the roadhouse at Payne’s Find. Next comes the tiny lo- of spiny spinifex hummocks. Spinifex (here, mainly Triodia basedowii calities of Mt. Magnet, Cue and Meekatharra. For the 360 kilometers and T. pungens) is well-adapted to the low-nitrogen, low- between Meekatharra and Capricorn, there is only the Kumarina phosphorus, and iron-rich sandy soils of this part of the arid zone. Roadhouse, inhabited by a crotchety old cockatoo that ubiquitously Just before the Fortescue River crossing, you pass Ethel Creek Sta- inquires, “Have a scratch?” Just past the Capricorn roadhouse and tion, and a Martu campsite from a few years ago where once the sta- before you get to Newman, you take the old graded route of the high- tion owner threatened to shoot a camp dog puppy and two Chihua- way, which passes through the Fortescue River gap in the Op- huas. Where the sand gives way to more clay-like colluvium, dense thalmia ranges. Exposed here are some of the oldest rocks on earth: woodlands of wintamarra (mulga, Acacia aneura) roll past, good places to get mata (the bush potato, Ipomoea costata) or wuukarta 7 (honey ants, Camponotus inflatus). The woodlands also support extensive populations of marlu (plains kangaroo, Macropus rufus), who feed unconcernedly amongst the cattle. The patchy mosaic of of mulga, spinifex, and large expanses of open ground is a function of local geomorphology: spinifex dominates the aeolian sands, mulga the clay-like colluvium, and fine, ironstone peb- bles create a stony gibber plain that discourages nearly all plant growth. These deflated areas are the result of slow erosion with little deposition, revealing a desert pavement that exposes small rocks too heavy to blow away, as well as thousands of years of accumulation of chipped stone and tools discarded by people. The road forks left toward Balfour Downs at the old Walgun well. There’s a battered white Holden station wagon from Jigalong with no windscreen parked on the flats just after the turnoff, a campfire burning nearby. Must be out hunting maruntu (argus moni- tors, Varanus panoptes) or digging wuukarta (honey ants). This station has a better reputation than Ethel Creek: they’ll let you hunt maruntu and dig mata (bush potato) and wuukarta, but will growl if you light a fire or shoot kangaroo. Here, a family traveling from Jigalong broke down in the summer time, and nearly per- ished of thirst. When they lit a smoky fire to signal their distress, the station owner came running with a loaded rifle, but calmed once he found out that they were stranded, and not hunting with fire. Just after the gate, which marks the half-way point to Parnngurr from Newman (two and a half hours if you drive too fast), you turn east on the Talawana track. It was the last road graded by the

Mitchell Biljabu relaxes with his ka- parlyi (grand-daughter) at camp after hunting maruntu (argus monitor) in the wintamarra woodlands outside of Newman, August 2009. 8 famed Gunbarrel Road Construction Party headed by surveyor Len Along this stretch, until the Talawana windmill, the cattle are as thick Beadell in 1963 -- 450 kilometers between Windy Corner at the junc- as fleas, and the land looks sore. But as you pass the windmill, over tion with the Gary Highway and Balfour Downs homestead. When the infamous Rabbit Proof Fence, and cross the sandy bed of the they had pushed through about halfway from Windy Corner, Beadell headwaters of the Oakover River, and come over a low rise, you and his crew came over a hill just east of Winukurujunu spring and leave the bovids back in the Pilbara, and the ground drops away be- surprised a ten-year old Martu boy, who stood beneath a shady gum fore you into a basin of color: cinnabar and vermilion Proterozoic tree and shook with fear: it was the first kartiya, or “walypala” (white sandstone ranges interspersed with dunes of red ochre, with silvery- fella), let alone the first enormous yellow tractor, that he had ever trunked eucalypts on their crests, pink-flowered thryptomenes on seen. His extended family was one of the last nomadic bands to live their flanks, and emerald green acacias with their yellow pom-poms in the area, and this was his first encounter with the world that he in the swales, shockingly bright colors against the cerulean sky. This had before known only from high-flying aircraft and occasional treats is the Little Sandy Desert. In striking contrast to the ancient rocks of of tinned jam and white flour brought back by his father and uncles the Pilbara, the desert is dominated by the endless swells of a sea from Ethel Creek, Balfour Downs, or Jigalong. of sand, dunes created during the height of the last glacial maxi- mum in the Pleistocene about 20 thousand years ago. Not far from

Winukurujunu spring in background, desert flowers and jinjiwirrily (desert raisin), July 2001. Here a band of Martu first encountered Len Beadell as he pushed through to establish the Talawana Track.

9 here is the first stand of wikirr (desert oak, Allocasuarina decaisne- camp here and stop to cook up kangaroo, emu, or bustard they’ve ana): tall, elegant, and Dr. Suess-like, they immediately bring to hunted along the road from Newman. mind the Lorax’s beloved Truffula Trees. With its nitrogen-fixing root The next range of cracked rock is known as “the Kitchen”, and it nodules, wikirr prefers the moist dune swales of sandy, nutrient poor marks the beginning of Parnngurr’s country, because it is likely here soils, and its distribution is critically determined by the frequency of that the marks of Martu fires become visible to you on the land- fire, as its seeds only sprout once burned. scape. Suddenly what looked like an indistinguishable sea of spini- Farther down the track, the road takes what seems to be a round- fex and acacia changes abruptly to an herb and shrub dominated about diversion: here, in 2002, a cyclone created a series of lakes plant community: with any rain, it will be carpeted with fluffy white between the dunes, complete with pelicans and ducks. The road fol- mulla mulla (Ptilotus spp), yellow desert rattlepod (Crotalaria ere- lows the drive-around Martu created in March of that year in an at- maea), the royal purple northern tinselflower (Cyanostegia cyanoca- tempt to get back home to Parnngurr. Not far from here is a dense lyx), pink parakeelya (Calandrinia balonensis), and the scarlet trum- stand of mulga and a windmill called Wintamarra bore. Many Martu pets of the upside down plant (Leptosema chambersii). Look closely under a shady tree and you may see a Martu dinner camp: the

A stand of wikirr trees (desert oak) on the Talawana Track just past the Talawana windmill, July 2013. Martu boys are given a wikirr at birth, and throughout their lives take special responsibility for that tree.

10 ashes of a campfire, some broken leafy branches and perhaps a from fire, spinifex grows from the marginal edge, creating prickly pile of downy white feathers where someone plucked and cooked a round rims surrounding bare earth hubs after a quarter of a century kipara (Australian bustard or bush turkey, Ardeotis australis). or so, a protected place to make a nest for the night. The low ranges of the Kitchen support an extensive population of As you climb the next rise and drop down into the plains, there’s a kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo, Macropus robustus). Here, the clean ochre slender cloud of dark smoke curling on the horizon -- a hunting fire. sand, burnished and polished by the heavy sun and cyan sky, Just past the turnoff marked “Rudall River”, the main track into Kar- pushes against the folded red cliffs, like waves breaking over a lamilyi National Park, there’s a white Toyota Landcruiser parked in a rocky coast. Down on the sandy flats, kirti-kirti recline with ladylike recently burned area, a roof-rack full of firewood, and what looks like legs in shallow shade, ears scouting ahead and twitching against a a crust of dried blood on the back window. Children are playing on swarm of busy flies. When night falls, they retreat to the top of the the dune not far away. Two women are spearing the ground with range to nest in the middle of ancient spinifex hummocks. Protected long, slender sticks (wana or kuruwpa, “crowbar”), walking in a spi-

Ida Taylor hunting at ‘The Kitchen’ on the Talawana Track, 2009.

11 ral around a pile of fresh earth: with two hands, they plunge the of plant and animal life, including kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) and the wana deep into the sand, working them forward and backward as now-rare warru (black-flanked wallaby, Petrogale lateralis), dense they search for the dens and tunnels made by the parnajarlpa (sand stands of white gum trees (Eucalyptus papuana) where maruntu (ar- goanna, Varanus gouldii). One sits down and uses the wana with gus monitor, Varanus panoptes) live on the eastern side, near Yulpul one hand to break up the earth while she digs with the other, and soak, and on the west, mulga woodlands and extensive bush tomato shortly, reaches in to extract a two-foot long yellow goanna. Holding (Solanum diversiflorum) “gardens” wherever a fire has passed re- it by the tail, she whacks its head quickly on her crow-bar, breaks cently. The Talawana track is not maintained east beyond Pukulyi -- the legs, and puts it in her bag. a wooden sign to the north indicates the turnoff to Parnngurr. Ahead, toward the east is Pukulyi, known to non-aboriginal people as the ‘Mackay Ranges’. With its many rockholes, springs, creeks, The Talawana continues east to the Canning Stock Route and beyond all the way to Windy Corner, but not far from Pukulyi is an im- and soaks, and numerous microhabitats, it supports a huge variety

Parnngurr women cooperate in probing for a newly occupied parnajarlpa (sand goanna) dens, just north of the Talawana track near Parnn- gurr Rockhole, August 2012.

The Seven Sisters, Minyipurru, July 2009.

12 portant place for the Wati Kujarra (Two Men) various encounters during which they created Travina, Sheena, Lynell, and Ny- and Minyipuru (Seven Sisters) dreamings. In signiﬁcant hills, rockholes, and other features of payu at Yulpul in the Pukulyi Martu Jukurrpa cosmology, the creation of the the landscape across the Western Desert, the Ranges, April 2004. world was accomplished by ancestral beings, seven sisters were forced to ﬂee into the sky, to who in the course of their everyday lives -- travel- become the seven visible stars of the Pleiades. ing, camping, hunting, squabbling, and pursu- The sisters stand here as seven pinnacles of ing sexual opportunities -- gave form, diversity, eroded dolomite at the edge of the tabletop and order to a formless landscape. In the story, mesa, while the old man is lying just to the the Minyipuru were seven sisters of varying north of the seven sisters, a low hill of knobby ages being pursued across the land by an old white quartzite. As Martu believe, the Jukurrpa man who wished to make them his wives. After is all around us, and our actions on the land-

13 scape make new stories that continue, maintain and re-enact this process of creation, holding it for future generations. If you take the north turnoff off the Talawana at Pukulyi and follow along through the hairpin turn, where once the fuel truck flipped and exploded in a bright orange fireball, one of the most important rockholes in the region is just ahead: Parnngurr. At the junc- tion of three linguistic groups, Manyjiljarra, Kartujarra, and Warn- man, it was a critical and permanent source of water that sup- ported many large gatherings during the wet season’s ritual business. On November 19, 1963, two Native Welfare Department Of- ficers, anthropology student Robert Tonkinson (then working in Jigalong) and two Jigalong Martu men, arrived at Parnngurr rockhole to rendezvous with the band that had been previously con- tacted near Winukurrujunu by Len Beadell’s road crew. The group's core members were three married siblings and their families: Jakayu with husband Biljaba, her co-wife, who was also her sister, and their two children, Jakayu’s brother and his wife and four children, and Jakayu’s maternal uncle with wife and two children. Jakayu had been orphaned at about five years of age and her older sister had raised her as her own child. They had been joined by Biljaba's niece and her two children, whose husband had come for a second wife, the 15-year old daughter of Jakayu’s brother. Another small family had also joined the group temporar- ily from the north: a man, his wife, and two children, who often camped with Jakayu’s family. A week before the patrol arrived, the Ethel Creek station owner had came out and left them a pile of fruit: apples, oranges, bananas. When the children returned, they contemplated the unfamiliar food. "Ngana-nga, mirrka?" they asked each other -- what kind of plant food is this? Not know-

The Seven Sisters, Minyipurru, July 2009. 14 ing if it was edible, or how to prepare it, they thought that to be safe, there, a Martu man named Japartujukurr walked in wearing bark san- they should cook it first. They lit a fire, dug a roasting pit, and dals (jinapuka) from a camp about 25 km to the north near the Kar- cooked the fruit in the ground for several hours. When they came lamilyi river, where he had left his three wives and their families some back from playing, they dug up the fruit, pawing through the ashes. time earlier. He was intending to join his son, who had gone into "Couldn't find anything," one of the children would later relate, laugh- Ethel Creek and had come back out with the patrol. The families ing. "All cooked up, bananas, oranges, everything. We found the ap- camped at Parnngurr decided to go in to Jigalong with Tonkinson, ples though. They were soft, but they tasted nice." When the patrol intending only a brief stay to visit families and ensure the initiation of (and Tonkinson) met the group, it was the height of a severe their boys. Japartujukurr did not go with them, but went back to his drought. While Parnngurr rockhole was never known to go com- family at Karlamilyi. From there they traveled 165 km northeast to Ja- pletely dry, by this point the water was quite stagnant and the chil- partujukurr's country near the Percival Lakes, where they narrowly dren were trying to filter it through the sand. While the patrol was evaded discovery by Native Patrol Officers commissioned by a

Hunters return to Parnngurr in the evening, June 2010.

15 branch of the Australian defense department kanginya) and in the 1980s at Punmu, by the Parnnugurr Rockhole following (WRE, Weapons Research Establishment) who shores of the brilliant white salt lake known as good rains in 2011. were pursing another band of mothers and chil- Dora (Ngayarta Kujarra). Today, that Karlamilyi dren living in the area. The Karlamilyi band re- band (Japartujukurr's children) is the core of the mained out until 1965, when they walked into Parnngurr community, while most of the Parnn- Balfour Downs, also intending to return after a gurr band (Jakayu’s children, nieces and neph- short stay. Both groups ended up staying for 15 ews) live alternately at Punmu (90 km to the years, some moving to Strelley Station under the north) and Parnngurr. The old camping spots control of the controversial Don McLeod, others near the rockhole are the haunts of feral camel, to establish new outstations at Well 61 (Ngal- who drink deeply of its cool, permanent waters.

16 Past the rockhole, the road cuts through the Dome, an eroded fold of amphibolite and ancient banded iron sedimentary rock forming a concentric circle that grows progressively older from the outside in. Amphibolite is metamorphosed basalt from the ancient earth’s mantle, and banded iron is a metamorphosed sedimentary rock that dates between 3.8 to 2.5 billion years ago, when there was little free oxygen in the atmosphere and no permanent continental crust. The banding in banded iron refers to the alternating layers of oxidized, iron rich minerals such as hematite, with iron-poor, silica rich layers of mudstones such as chert or jasper. As banded iron- amphibolite formations are commonly associated with extensive mineral deposits, including iron ore, gold, copper, uranium, and manganese, the Dome has been the target of many mining explora-

17 tions since the early 1980s. In 1984, Martu returned to Parnngurr undetected is nearly impossible, as nearly all of the community’s rockhole in part to prevent the further expansion of a uranium mine camp dogs raise a howling, barking ruckus as soon as you pull in. here, which threatened to devastate one of their most ritually signiﬁ- Teenagers skulk around, embarrassed to be seen to be excited at cant regions. your return, fathers and uncles sit quietly around the ﬁre, pretending At the crest of the the Dome, the dreaming track we have traveled not to notice you’ve even left, and mothers and sisters embrace you for 23 hours is nearly at an end: ahead are the white tin roofs, the wa- and welcome you home. ter tank, and the twinkling lights of Parnngurr community. Slipping in

Nyamujarra (grandson- grandfather) kanyininpa ngurra (holding country) Martu style, on camp near Parnngurr, 2010.

18 Wakka Taylor feeds his dogs at home in Parnngurr, May 2010.

PARNNGURR

Life in the community revolves around hunting, painting, playing cards, law business, ﬁxing cars, making sure the kids are in school, and trying to keep the dogs out of the rubbish. People in Parnngurr average two days per week hunting, but older people hunt more often, up to every other day, if they can use a motor- car. Many people paint, about one day per week on average, and some people work through CDEP or as rangers in a growing pro- gram run through Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (the Martu Cultural Knowl- edge Project), averaging two days per week. Law business takes up several weeks in the summer, but people also spend a good part of time hosting and traveling for pinyi (funerals) and other ‘sorry business’.

19 Desmond Taylor paints on country at Kurta Kurta in August 2007. Mourners at a pinyi (funeral) in Parnngurr, July 2007.

Parnngurr families playing cards in June 2005. Cecilia, Shaylene, Roshaun, Nyalangka and Brianna hunt parna- jalpa (sand goanna) in March 2004.

20 Most Martu receive a small amount of public money as a pension or The graph below shows the average percent of days that each adult family support. But life in Parnngurr is always busy, and people in Parnngurr spent in different types of work. Brian Codding kept spend a lot of time foraging. Over a 90 day period in 2006, Brooke track of all activities performed by Martu across 65 days in April- Scelza (now at University of California, Los Angeles) documented at June 2010. On average, men and women in Parnngurr spend about least one foraging party (but often more) from Parnngurr on 94% of 1 out of every 4 days (23%) hunting and gathering. days recorded.

How Martu adults spend their days in Parnngurr, April-June 2010

Foraging

Wage Labor

Maintenance

Gambling

Painting

Law Business

0 5 10 15 20 25 % total days sampled 21 A typical scene: returning to the Martu place a high premium on travel, and for thousands of years: food, water, family, work, community after an extended camps within the communities are always ﬂuctu- social and ritual obligations. Now that many hunting trip, July 2010. ating with movement between residential have motor vehicles, Martu travel long dis- camps, desert communities, and towns such as tances over short periods of time. Newman and Port Hedland. On any given day, The relationships between the daily work of for- Parnngurr community has between two and two aging, painting, sacred business, school, travel, hundred residents. Much of this movement is ﬁxing cars, gambling, and food sharing in re- based on the same factors that would have mote communities like Parnngurr are underwrit- pushed and pulled Martu throughout the desert ten by a deep commitment to maintaining the

22 Jukurrpa. For example, entangled within the practice of foraging is the body of knowledge concerning the nature of the relationships between humans and other species, and how those relationships were maintained according to Jukurr (“The Word”). The Ju- kurrpa is described by Martu variously as "Law", "Business", or "University", as cosmology, philosophy, religion, natural history, and living landscapes. For social and ecological relationships, the Jukurrpa explains "not just what animals do and where plants grow, but why they live the way they do and how they are related to each other and to the ancestral beings" (Desmond Taylor 2003). According to Scott Cane (2002) it "provides an explanation of nature, establishes a social code, creates a basis for prestige and political status within the community, acts as a religious philosophy and forms a psychological basis for life". It contains information not only about the origins of life, but the mechanisms of its maintenance through detailed information about ecological inter- actions, down to the minutia of which species of skink returns to the same location to defecate, and which mouse prefers recently burnt spinifex. Critical to the perpetuation of life is the proper ad- herence to Jukurrpa, which frames the importance of Martu burning and foraging practices within the notion that country must be used if life is to continue. As one elder put it, to stop hunting and to stop burning would mean "the end of the world" (Mitchell Bil- jabu 2002). Many Martu believe that if they do not continue to re- enact the Jukurrpa through emulating the creative forces of the ancestral beings across the landscape — hunting, collecting,

After a day of successful hunting for nyintaka (yalipara, perentie monitor, and maruntu, argus monitor) Muuki Taylor rests at a dinner--time camp near White Gum handpump, April 2004. 23 burning, and holding (caring for) family — those plants and animals that depend on their actions will cease to exist. Much of the rest of this booklet demonstrates how true this is.

Top: Curtis Taylor and Anthony Bullen survey for kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) at Pilyakumarra in September 2009. Right: Grant Lundstrom after a long day of tracking a large kipara (bustard), July 2001. 24 CHAPTER 2 WARTILPA AND WALTJA (HUNTING AND FAMILY) Today, Martu foraging takes two forms: one in which a foraging party of people from numerous camps in the community leaves in a vehicle to set up a temporary “dinner-time camp”, which serves as the anchor point for hunting activities in that region. Another type of hunting and gathering consist almost entirely of “forage- as-you-go”, with a party traveling, searching, with no dinner-time camp. Both patterns of foraging mobility involve the use of a vehicle, but dinner camp foraging involves the vehicle mostly in travel to and from the dinner camp, with most of the foraging happen- ing on foot. Between 2000-2010 we participated in, and recorded, 347 foraging trips (266 dinner-time camps, and 81 vehicle hunts without a dinner-time camp). These trips make up 4461 hours that individual adults searched for, pursued, and processed bush foods. Af- ter each forager returned, we weighed and counted all of the bush foods, and later calculated the edible meat, fat, and mar- row, and converted these to calories for the different foods. In the desert, plant gathering is usually quite seasonal and patches of fruit and seed are available only in certain places at certain times of the year. When there has been plenty of good summer rain, winter and spring fruit and seeds are plentiful in areas that have been previously burned. The scarcity of plant foods means that today hunting, wartilpa, is nearly always more important than gathering, nganinpa. In a good season, fruits such as wamurla (bush tomato) and jinjiwirrily (desert raisin) are very important bush tucker, as is wama, the nectar from late winter ﬂow- ers. But vegetable foods make up only 15% (by energy value) of the bush foods that people eat. Meat, kuwiyi, is more important,

Above: Wakka Taylor prepares a kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) for cooking at GJ Bore, September 2005. Below: lunki (cossid moth larvae), jinjiwirrily (desert raisin), and parnajarlpa (sand goanna). 26 Women

cat 2%

wamurla & jinjiwirrily (solanum fruit) 6%

wilyki (seed) 1% kipara (bustard) wama (nectar) 29% 3%

honey 3% kanyjamarra & minyarra (yams & onions) 2% lunki (larvae) These two graphs show how 2% kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) 9% Martu women (above) and men (below) spend their nyintaka (perentie and argus monitor) Men 5% time in different hunting and gathering activities.

parnajarlpa (sand goanna) 37%

This graph shows the percentage of all calories acquired from each of the different resources that Martu often hunt and gather.

27 Women Men Time Allocation Across the Lifespan: Women Time Allocation Across the Lifespan: Men 1.0 1.0

0.9 0.9 Collecting plants

0.8 Collecting plants 0.8 Small animals 0.7 0.7 Large animals

0.6 0.6

0.5 0.5

0.4 0.4 Small animals 0.3 more 2 & P(largegametime)M 0.3 Percentage of days in each activity each in days of Percentage % foraging time 0.2 0.2

0.1 Large animals 0.1 0.0 0.0 0-5 5-10 10-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80+ 0-5 5-10 10-20 20-40 40-60 60-80 80+ Age category Age Cat Age of forager Age of forager

Above: People of different sexes and ages spend their foraging time differently. Children collect fruit and hunt winjikirti (ridge-tail goanna), young women collect fruit and lunki (cossid moth larvae), older women hunt parnajarlpa (sand goanna), and men hunt hunt both larger and smaller animals. Right: Parnngurr kids hunting winjikirti near Pimurlu, July 2009. Winjikirti hunting has always been a common activity for Martu children. comprising 85%, mostly from parnajarlpa (sand goanna), kipara There are also large differences between people of different ages. (bustard, aka bush turkey), and kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo). Feral cam- Both boys and girls hunt in similar ways until around age 12-15. Both els are common in the region, but Martu only hunt them occasion- prefer to hunt ridge-tailed monitor, winjikirti, and do a great deal of ally. the collecting of fruits like wamurla and jinjiwirrily. As girls get older, Today, parnajarlpa is one the most important foraged foods. While they spend more time hunting both small and large animals and less men and women often hunt and gather in very similar ways, and time collecting plant foods and lunki (cossid moth larvae, aka both are highly skilled at tracking and digging, there are some differ- witchetty grubs). As boys get older, they increase the time they ences. Women hunt parnajarlpa more often (72% of their time), and spend hunting for larger animals, especially kirti-kirti and kipara. collect more plant foods - mostly bush tomatoes and desert raisins While old women tend to be the most vigorous hunters, old men usu- (wamurla and jinjiwirrily), but also roots like vigna yams (kanjamarra) ally do little hunting. and wild onions (minyarra), while men spend more time hunting kirti- Overall, women tend to work very hard at both hunting and gather- kirti and kipara (61% of their time). ing, which means they tend to produce more bush food than men do

28 1

0.9

0.8

0.7

0.6

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2 Proportion production by women by production Proportion 0.1

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Week

This graph shows how much bush food (by calories) women produce compared to men over 45 weeks of direct observation. On average (the black horizontal line), women produce about 68% of all food that is hunted and gathered. But, as you can see, there are some weeks that women produce over 90% of all bush food. Sometimes, however, men are especially successful in hunting kipara (bustard) or kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo); during those weeks women’s total contribution remains high, but their percentage of bush food drops below 50%. overall. While the percentage of bush food (in calories) that women hunts are often unsuccessful and a hunter does not keep much of bring in varies from week to week, it never drops below about this food for him or herself. Martu do not hunt solely to feed them- 35%, and can range as high as 100%, averaging about 68% over selves or their close family, but hunt to share with others, and not the long term. While women consistently bring in a lot of bush just those to whom one is obligated to share. Hunters do not act as food, the percentage of their contribution depends heavily on if the food they have acquired is their own private property to be whether or not anyone has been successful in hunting kirti-kirti or eaten by their own family. That is because Martu treat everyone kipara. Since men do more of this type of hunting, a good season present like family and don’t discriminate based on who has or has or a good year for kangaroo or bush turkey can sharply increase not acquired food—every adult present when food is distributed the amount of food men bring in. gets an equal share. This is the case even though different cuts of Hunting for larger, more uncertain animals like kirti-kirti and kipara larger game are designated by different terms of kinship. Those provide a large amount of food for the time spent hunting, but a who have a bigger harvest that day, share more, so that at the end

29 1500 3000

2500

1000 2000

1500

500 1000 Amount shared (g)Amount shared 500 Returnsbefore primary distribution (g/hr) 0 0 Kangaroo Hunting Sand Monitor Hunting 0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 Amount Acquired (g)

800 )

700 g ( 600 600

500 400 received

400 200 (g) LS Means 300 take-home share take-home

Amount 0 200 No Failed Successful hunting hunter hunter

100 Failed hunter Returnsprimaryafter distribution (g/hr) Successful

0 These two graphshunting No show the importance of sharing Kangaroo Hunting Sand Monitor Hunting bush foods. The topHunterType graph shows that the more food is acquired, the more it is shared to others. The bottom These two graphs show the efficiency (grams of edible graph shows that it does not matter if you were suc- meat per hour foraging) of hunting for kirki-kirti (hill cessful or not in acquiring bush foods - all adults pre- kangaroo) and parnajarlpa (sand goanna), before sent when food is distributed get an equal share. (top graph) and after (bottom graph) portions are shared out. of the day, everyone around the campﬁre, everyone at the ngurra, ter hunter shares more than a poorer hunter, but he or she doesn’t has the same amount to eat and no one goes home hungry. In receive more from others. fact, the best hunter on any day usually comes home with signiﬁ- Martu gain fame not through their skill in hunting, but through the cantly less than everyone else because he or she usually shares a way they broker their skill in hunting to feed others. When Martu higher percentage of what was caught. Over the long term, a bet-

30 These two graphs show how better hunters support poorer hunt- After pit-roasting, Curtis and Wakka Taylor butcher a kirti-kirti (hill kanga- ers and people who don’t hunt as often. Each dot is a single roo) for sharing near Wintamarra Bore, July 2007. adult for which we have enough data to calculate a long term “efficiency score”. Those who are consistently better hunters give away a bigger proportion of their daily catch (the top graph) and don’t receive more meat from others (bottom graph).

talk about hunting, they often describe their underlying motivation as bonanza harvest, he or she drops it quietly by the ﬁre, drawing no 'hunting to share'. Anyone can be a good hunter, but to be a mirtilya attention. If someone acquires a very large prey item, they leave it at (a skilled and generous hunter), you don't simply produce more, but the edge of camp or hand it off to the children to carry in and give to you also share more of that production with others. There are many someone else to cook and distribute. As one woman put it, “when a times when a mirtilya gives away 90% of the catch to both hunters mirtilya goes out hunting she has a good feeling that she's going to and nonhunters alike. And importantly, when a hunter returns with a get so much and be able to feed others. Good hunters always think

31 Sand Monitor Sharing Network

Sand goanna: Parnajarlpa sharing

This network diagram shows how parna- Mayika Chapman collects lunki (cossid moth larvae) jarlpa are shared between people. Blue cir- near Yulpul. Even though lunki harvests are some- cles are hunters, red circles are children and times very small (a cupful), they are nearly always other non-hunters. Arrows show how meat shared evenly around the dinner camp. travels from hunter to recipient.

Network visualization showing the frequency of sand monitor portions transferred between individuals. that when they go out and it helps them to hunt better… When a for yourself, not for everybody. You don't share things”. According to Includes 216 transfersreally from good 2004. hunter Edgewise goes out, reciprocity she gives is so0.55. much away and takes Martu, good hunters share in order to demonstrate their commitment home only a small piece for herself. But she will always walk away to building family and contributing to the public good. This type of feeling pukurlpa." Pukurlpa is what many Martu see as the reward for sharing is what we'd experience around the dinner table: it is the mirtilya: pukurlpa means generally “warmth and happiness”, but a sharing that cements social relationships, that feeds and nourishes happiness that is the product of the generosity that binds people to- but at the same time, treats everyone like family. Those who are gether. Without generosity, “you feel you're not in a family. You're just more generous do receive other rewards as well: the good feelings

32 Above: This figure shows the proportion of hunting and collecting episodes during which two or more people cooperated in acquiring bush food. The numbers at the top of the bars are the total number of foraging episodes recorded. As you can see, women often team up (usually with other women), especially if they are out hunting for parnajarlpa and nyintaka (65% of all sand monitor hunts and 75% of all large monitor hunts), or if they happen to go out for kipara (bustard, 96% of all vehicle hunts) or kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo, which women don’t do often, but all 6 episodes we recorded were cooperative). Right: Ngamuru Bidu cooks cooperatively acquired maruntu (argus monitor) at a dinner camp, August 2009. generated by sharing with others foster strong ties of cooperation in evenly, even if one hunter was unlucky and found nothing that day. other ways. The networks of kinship in the community are tied to- Cooperative generous hunters, women and men, tie the whole com- gether by the networks of sharing and cooperation: as Martu often munity together in bonds of kinship and family. say, they are all one family, and it is this sharing that creates those ties. People like to hunt parnajarlpa with those who are generous in sharing, because they can count on their partner to split the catch

33 Lily Long and her daughter and grandchildren, along with Winda Wil- liams and others, at a dinner camp near the white gum handpump in April 2002.

34 CHAPTER 3 WARU AND NGURRA (FIRE AND COUNTRY) Jakayu BIljabu tracks parnajarlpa (sand goanna) and feral cat (one of which she just captured and is carrying the can) within a nyurnma (new burn) near Punmu in 2001.

Hunting is an important way that Martu hold together their society be- najarlpa (sand goanna) during the winter time. The tight patchwork of cause sharing makes everyone family. Generous sharing, especially vegetation that this type of burning creates in the desert grasslands is sharing resources rich with meaning in Jukurrpa, is an important way for critically important for efficient foraging, but also critically important for gaining prestige and building trust needed for cooperation in many as- the plants and wildlife that make up the Martu homelands pects of Martu life. Being able to have access to areas with abundant Patterns of Martu mobility, the way that hunting and gathering occurs bush foods requires waru (fire), most importantly broadcast fires that across the landscape, shapes how the patchwork of fire develops. Luck- are set to clear off patches of old growth spinifex in order to hunt for par- ily, because the desert is not covered by a canopy of trees and is rarely

36 obscured with clouds, we can use satellite images to measure the shape of that landscape, the size of the fires that are lit by Martu and lightning, and the shape and extent of different stages of plant regrowth that emerge following a fire. This is really useful because we can take all of our records of the foraging routes, dinner-time camps, and areas used by Martu since 2000, map those onto the satellite images showing the fire history of the region, and compare those areas commonly used by Martu with the fire-related landscape characteristics in regions not cared for by Martu. With this, we are able to actually measure differences between the landscapes that lightning produces and the patterns that emerge from Martu caring for their country. Fire is critically important for the ecology of the region that com- prises the Western Desert. Without fire, the spinifex grass grows steadily and eventually, often within ten to fifteen years, it will take over all other grasses and herbs. This reduces the amount of food and shelter for other animals, and creates a landscape in which wildfires can wipe out critical habitat for many threatened species. Spinifex is full of highly flammable resin (a resin Martu use for many purposes, such as patching up wooden tools), so if there are large areas of old growth, lightning can cause fires that rage across the desert, and with nothing to stop them, these fires can wipe the desert clean over very large areas. When Martu go out hunting for sand goanna (parnajarlpa) during the winter (wantajarra, ~ May through September), they almost al-

Wakka and Karnu Taylor with May- ika Chapman (far left) and their grandchildren, Cheyenne (standing next to Karnu) and Amon (with a lizard through his shirt), preparing parnajarlpa for roasting at a dinner-time camp in 2009. 37 ways burn. But the fires they set are very different than summer fires cial and ritual obligations that pertain to the area. Hunters need to caused by lightning. In order to search for the parnajarlpa that are know where the fire will burn, how intense it will be, how fast it will burrowed in the sand during the colder temperatures, hunters target move, and where all of the local fire breaks are. As such, only those areas that have older growth spinifex surrounded by bare ground or hunters with rights to the sacred knowledge about the local ‘estate’ newer vegetation to control the spread of fire. Before setting a broad- (a geographically designated network of sites and ritual that com- cast fire, hunters have to take into consideration the pertinent condi- prise one’s birthright and initiatory inheritance) can make a large tions of weather, vegetation, landforms, and most importantly, the so- burn for hunting. In all our years hunting with Martu, we have never

Foraging returns for goanna by time since fire

2000 Summer Winter 1500

1000

500

Top: Fruit from plants like wamurla (bush tomato) that Roshaun has hr worked per gained energy collected are only found 1-3 years after a fire. Right: Hunting parnajarlpa (sand goanna) is best in summer in recently burned 0 patches, because tracks are easier to follow. Hunting in winter is < 1 yr 1-4 yrs 5-10 yrs Fresh burn best in fresh burns because it makes fresh holes easier to see in the old growth where most parnajarlpa make their winter burrows. Stage

38 observed broadcast burning when people are traveling outside of set while searching for parnajarlpa and other burrowed prey in the their own estates. Ideally, hunters like to expose an area of about the spinifex sand plains and dune fields. size of a footy oval, between 1-30 ha. This gives them a large After Martu burn to clear off patches of spinifex to hunt for parna- enough area to search for the dispersed occupied dens (pirti), but jarlpa, rain causes the burned ground to turn a bright green with a small enough that they don’t need to be concerned that the fire will diverse set of plants. These plants mature over the next few months, spread to areas where it might threaten sacred sites (ngurlu), peo- and supply many of the fruits (such as wamurla and jinjiwirrily) that ple, or wildlife. An individual that starts a fire that approaches a are prized by both people and other animals (including hill kanga- men’s or women’s ritual site will face very serious consequences. roo). While Martu also burn for many other purposes (such as clearing Martu don’t stick to a single region in which to hunt, gather, and around a camp, signaling to others, or spot fires to flush large moni- burn, but move across the landscape to different areas depending tor lizards or feral cats), most (80%) of all fires that people light are

This map is a composite of satellite images showing all the fires that burned between 2000 and 2010 across 47 thousand square km of Martu country, including all of Kar- lamilyi N.P. and a large sec- tion of the Martu Native Title. The color indicates the age of the fire: older fires are dark brown, younger fires are light yellow. The lightest beige color indicates salt playas and water courses.

Over this ten-year period, there were 6100 individual fires.

39 on the changing success they have in acquiring a wide array of different resources in different regions, seasons, and different Nyurnma stages of regrowth that follow a fire. When Martu repeat this process of clearing patches with fire and moving from place to place to acquire bush food, it creates a very distinctive kind of landscape, one that many Martu often say is juri (sweet). These landscapes are made up of a tight patchwork of various stages of regrowth that Martu categorize into five different biologi- Kunarka Waru-waru cal communities that change over time following a broadcast fire. When waru (fire) is applied to a patch of older-growth spinifex, the new burn is referred to as a nyurnma, ideal for spotting parnajarlpa dens in the winter time and tracking lunkuta (blue-tongue Waru skink) and other small animals. A nyurnma resets the cycle of plant succession, and soon (usually within a few months, especially with some winter rain) the patch will be called waru-waru. Waru-waru is important for summer time tracking of hunted animals, especially goannas, but there is not much vegetation available for people, although kangaroos like the yukuri, green shoots, that come up right after a rain. Depending on the location and Nyukura Manguu amount of summer (yalijarra) rains, waru-waru develops into nyukura, which is the most plant-diverse stage in the cycle. Ready access to patches of nyukura is critical for animals and people that rely on fruit from solanum plants (warmula and jinjiwirrily) and seeds from different types of grasses, which were especially important for Martu in the “pujiman” (bushman) days. Within about 5-7 years, spinifex begins to crowd out most of the other plants, This figure illustrates the cycle of regrowth that Martu categorize into five and as the hummocks of spinifex grass become large and close distinct biological communities emerging from their use of fire. The mid- enough together, the area is again ready to carry a fire. Martu re- successional stage (nyukura) is especially diverse with plant life, but main- fer to this stage as manguu. People keep a close eye on the mo- taining a landscape with a tight mosaic of all the different stages is vital saic throughout the region and discuss the locations of patches for healthy country that can support a diversity of desert plants, animals, of manguu and when they should be burned. What may look to and people. Without proper Martu burning, the diverse mosaic collapses the outsider as somewhat indiscriminate burning is often the end with large, intense wildfires.

40 product of long conversations about which areas need to be burned, who has the sacred knowledge regarding Jukurrpa sites for that estate, and the likely behavior of the fire once it is lit. If someone without the rights to burn on those estates were to light a large patch of manguu and the fire carried to threaten life or ritual property, the consequences are very severe. When manguu is fired, much of that particular patch will not continue to age into the final stage of succession that Martu refer to as kunarka. How- ever, since broadcast fires in large areas of manguu are low intensity and spotty, they leave behind good-sized islands of kunarka. These islands of old-growth spinifex are very important in supply- ing good cover for an assortment of animals, many of which are very important for Martu. We are now working on showing how these patterns of hunting and burning create Martu country, and how the maintenance of Martu country supports native plants and animals. One way to do this is by looking at the images that satellites take of the desert regions over the years we have worked in Martu communities, outline all of the new fires that show up in the winter and summer of each year, and then put all of these fires together in a map and color each fire according to the year it burned. When we com- bine this with all of our information on where and how much Martu forage on the landscape, we can see how the areas where

The photos to the left illustrate how low-intensity hunting fires that Martu sustain create a tight patchwork of vegetation in a living landscape. In the top picture, taken near Parnngurr, you can see the creation of nyurnma with flames in the background, and nyukura and manguu nearby. In the bottom, Nylangka Taylor surveys a large lightning fire that devastated more than 10,000 hectares off the Canning Stock Route near Tiwa well in 2002.

41 Martu hunt and burn are different than areas where only lighting are actively burning. Most (about 75%) of fires in the Martu land- causes fire. scape are less than 10 hectares in size, and very few (only 2%) are Because Martu control their fires and make sure they don’t threaten larger than 1,000 hectares. This is very different than areas where camps or ngurlu (sacred) sites, they create a much tighter mosaic of Martu don’t often hunt and burn: in these areas where almost all the habitat with many more patches of all stages of plant regrowth—and fires are started by lightning, more that 25% of all fires are 1,000 hec- this is easy to see as you zoom in to the landscape in the satellite im- tares or larger—and during the summer, in areas where Martu don’t ages! When we measure the size of patches across the entire re- regularly hunt, more than 5% of fires are massive (over 10,000 hec- gion, we find that there are many fewer very large fires where Martu tares). The average Martu fire size for wantajarra (winter) fires is just

This map (A, bottom left) shows the differences between the landscapes that emerge from Martu hunting and burning practices compared with those created by lighting fire where Martu don’t regularly burn and hunt. This is done by outlining all of the firescars visible from the satellite images taken between 2000-2010. The Martu landscapes are the darker gray areas within 50km of Parnngurr and Punmu (the two small white dots in map A) and within 5 km of hunting tracks and dinner camps. The fires are aged by color: for example the lightest yellow areas are recent fires with mostly nyurnma and the darkest brown areas are made up mostly of kunarka.

When you zoom into the map (squares B and C on the top, and E and D on the right), you can see that the patterns of Martu hunting shape the country. Where Martu hunt most often (squares C and E, which are around Parnngurr), the patchwork is tighter and more fragmented. There are many more transitions between different stages of regrown and diversity of plants is twice as high in the Martu landscape compared with the lightning landscape.

42 over 100 hectares, while lightning fires in this season average over year to year depending on changing climate conditions: for exam- 6,000 hectares in size. In summer, when more lightning fires happen ple, the summer fires in 2000 were huge because big monsoon rain in areas away from Martu country, lightning fires are smaller (nearly in previous years created a big build up of spinifex. But in the sum- 2000 ha in size) but still much larger than Martu fires (just over 300 mer of 2003 there were very few large fires. Martu burning practices ha). create fires that are consistent in size from year to year, and thus The Martu landscape with smaller fires and tighter clusters of differ- “dampen” the climate-caused changes in fire sizes. This provides a ent stages of plant regrowth plays a critical role in maintaing healthy stabilizing effect that helps to protect a more diverse country, one country and healthy people. The Martu landscape helps to buffer that we, and Martu, believe protects habitat for threatened and en- against the spread of very large wildfires that become especially dangered species. This stabilizing effect is likely to be even more im- large following a summer of heavy rains. The size of fires in areas portant in the future as climate conditions are predicted to become where Martu don’t often hunt and burn change dramatically from

Percentage of fires in each size class (hectares), 2000-2010 60 Martu Lightning

0 .1-1 1-10 10-100 100-1000 1000-10000 10000-100000 >100000

43 more and more variable with changing patterns in the northern mon- to patches of waru-waru and nyukura. We have been able to show soon. from our data, that without Martu in areas well beyond where burn- The way in which Martu knowledge and practices sustain habitat for ing occurs regularly, the number of kirti-kirti declines dramatically. other animals is easy to see if you look at the numbers of kirti-kirti There are similar effects of Martu burning on parnajarlpa (sand go- (hill kangaroo). Kirti-kirti can eat spinifex grass if they have to, but anna) populations. Parnajarlpa do best in areas where they have they much prefer to have access to patches of green plants and good access to lots of different patches of mid-succession (nyukura) solanum fruit. These are most available where Martu create tighter and older growth spinifex (manguu and kunarka). This is because mosaics with plenty of nyukura nearby the rocky ranges where kirti- they are “edge lovers”—they especially like the edges between dif- kirti live. So, while kirti-kirti don’t like to live too close to Martu com- ferent stages of regrowth. Parnajarlpa use older-growth patches to munities (because there is too much hunting pressure), they don’t shelter their winter-time dens, and the nyukura patches that attract like to live too far away either, because they don’t have easy access insects and other small animals that they prey on. When we have

Average ﬁre size per season > 60,000 ha 15000

13500

12000

10500

9000

7500

6000 A large lightning fire burns near Tiwa in 2002. Fire (hectares) size 4500

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0 1999 2000 W 2001 W 2002 W 2003 W 2004 W 2005 W 2006 W 2007 W 2008 W 2009 W Lightning Martu 44 Page 19 of 19 Submitted to Proceedings of the Royal Society B: For Review Only

The two graphs below show how Martu burning practices help support populations of kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) and parnajarlpa (goanna). Left: Kirti-kirti are less common near the community (within 40 minutes travel time), but are also much less common far away. This is because hunting pressure is high close to the community, but far away Martu don’t burn often, and hill kangaroo can’t find new plants and fruit. 5

2 The graph on the right shows Number of parnajarlpa 0

. Number of kirti-kirti 0 how Martu use of a region (hunting hours per square 0.25

0 Burned Unburned 2

0 kilometer) increases the num- . 0 ber of parnajarlpa found in 0.2

5 unburned patches. This is be- 1 y 0 t . i cause parnajarlpa have bet- 0 s n

e ter access to shelter (small is- 0.15 D

t 0 a

1 lands of older-growth spinifex c 0 S .

0 where they make their dens) 0.1 and their prey (insects and 5 0

0 other small animals) in land- . 0 scapes where Martu create a 0.05 fine mosaic of different fire 0 .

0 ages. 20 40 60 80 100 120 0 Distance from Parnngurr (minutes travel) Most hunting Some Little No hunting Travel Time

http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/prsb measured the average number of animals present in plots that vary they could not take care of their country—that it needs to be properly by how much Martu burn and hunt in them, it turns out that parna- hunted, burned, with proper attention to Jukurrpa on their sacred jarlpa are most often found in landscapes that Martu care for. homelands. This collapse is easy to see when we look at what hap- We think that Martu are correct when they assert that when they left pened to the patchwork of ﬁres during the time that Martu were there homelands during the mission era — which for many people in away. Areal photographs of the region taken during the Maralinga Parnngurr, Punmu and Kunawarritji was a fairly short time in Ji- and Blue Streak missile testing operations captured the way that the galong between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s — the health of the landscape looked before Martu left their homelands. In regions country declined dramatically. During their hiatus, many small and where Martu were living and hunting, the landscape looks similar to medium sized mammals went extinct or experienced dramatic de- how it does today around Parnngurr and Punmu. This changed clines in population. Martu often say that this happened because when wildﬁres raged through the regions during the mission times.

Fires between Yulpul and Parnngurr rockhole

1954: Martu 1973: No Martu 2000: Martu

The images above are from aerial photographs (1954) and satellite images (1973 and 2000) of the Yulpul region just south of Parngurr (total area of each image is 144 sq. km). This area has always been an important location for living, hunting, and gathering. The areas in red are recent burns. The images show the dramatic effects of wildfire that devastated the country when the Martu mosaic in the area collapsed during the years when they left their homelands for missions and settlements such as Jigalong. As shown in the 2000 image, the mosaic has now been reestab- lished with regular hunting and burning. It is this patchwork that buffers against climate driven wildfires in the region.

46 This photo shows a landscape that Martu call juri (sweet) as a product of proper hunting and burning. Almost all stages of vegetative regrowth are visible. A nyurnma (new burn) angles along the dune in the background and is abruptly adjacent to nyukura (mid-succession) along the dune to to the right. At the base of the dune is mature manguu, with waru-waru (new growth) and nyukura in the foreground. Photo taken on the Talawana Track just before the Parnngurr turnoff, June 2013.

Average ﬁre size in the Yulpul region in 1954 was just 50 hectares; country is to them, and how important they are for their country. in 1973 a single ﬁre was over 10,000 hectares, and today it is 50 We also hope that this work can help in making sure that their hectares again. knowledge and practices will be carried on to future generations of The way that Martu use and care for country is critical for sustain- Martu, and that those generations can continue to kanyininpa ngur- ing the ecology of the Western Desert. We hope that all of the work rara according to the ancestral traditions of Jukurrpa. we present here can be used by Martu to show how important their 47 Kumpaya Girgirba hunts parnajarlpa (sand goanna) at the edge of a nyurnma (new burn) at Nyukuwarta in June 2009.

48 Bibliography and additional reading

Bird, D.W., B.F. Codding, R. Bliege Bird, D.W. Zeanah, and C.J. Taylor (2013). Megafauna in a continent of small game: archaeological implications of Martu camel hunting in Australia's Western Desert. Quaternary International 297:155-166. Bird, D.W. and R. Bliege Bird (2010). Competing to be leaderless: food sharing and magnanimity among Martu Aborigines. In The Evolution Of Leadership: Transi- tions In Decision Making From Small-Scale To Middle-Range Societies, J. Kanter, K. Vaughn and J. Earkins (eds), pp. 21-49. Santa Fe: SAR Press. Bird, D.W., R. Bliege Bird, B.F. Codding (2009). In pursuit of mobile prey: Martu hunting strategies and archaeofaunal interpretation. American Antiquity 74:3-29. Bird, D.W. (2009). The inherent value of foraging. Arena Magazine 98:30-33. Bird, D.W., R. Bliege Bird, and C.H. Parker. (2005). Aboriginal burning regimes and hunting strategies in Australia’s Western Desert. Human Ecology 33: 443-464. Bird, D.W. and R. Bliege Bird (2005). Martu children’s hunting strategies in the Western Desert, Australia. In Hunter-Gatherer Childhoods: Evolutionary, Develop- mental & Cultural Perspectives, B.S. Hewlett and M.E. Lamb (eds), pp. 129-146. New Brunswick: Aldine Transaction. Bird, D.W., R. Bliege Bird, and C.H. Parker (2004). Women who hunt with fire. Australian Aboriginal Studies 2004(1): 90-96. Bliege Bird, R., N. Taylor, B.F. Codding, D.W. Bird (2013). Niche construction and Dreaming logic: Aboriginal patch mosaic burning and varanid lizards (Varanus gouldii) in Australia. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280:20132297. Bliege Bird, R., B.F. Codding, P.G. Kauhanen, and D.W. Bird, D. W. (2012). Aboriginal hunting buffers climate-driven fire-size variability in Australia’s spinifex grasslands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(26): 10287–10292. Bliege Bird, R., B. Scelza, D.W. Bird and E.A. Smith (2012). The hierarchy of virtue: mutualism, altruism, and signaling in Martu women’s cooperative hunting. Evolu- tion and Human Behavior 33: 64-78. Bliege Bird, R., D.W. Bird, B.F. Codding, C. Parker, J. Holland Jones (2008). The fire-stick farming hypothesis: Anthropogenic fire mosaics, biodiversity and Austra- lian Aboriginal foraging strategies. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105(39):14796-14801. Bliege Bird, R, B.F. Codding and D.W. Bird (2009). Determinants of gendered foraging and production inequalities among Martu. Human Nature 20: 105-129. Bliege Bird, R. and D.W. Bird (2008). Why women hunt: risk and contemporary foraging in a Western Desert Aboriginal community. Current Anthropology 49(4):655-693. Codding, B.F., R. Bliege Bird, and D.W. Bird. (2011). Provisioning offspring and others: risk–energy trade-offs and gender differences in hunter–gatherer foraging strategies. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 278(1717): 2502-2509. Codding, B.F. (2011) Any Kangaroo? On the Ecology, Ethnography and Archaeology of Foraging in Australia’s Arid West. PhD. Dissertation, Stanford University. Codding, B.F., D.W. Bird, and R. Bliege Bird (2010). Interpreting abundance indices: some zooarchaeological implications of Martu foraging. Journal of Archaeo- logical Science 37:3200-3210. Jones, J.H., R. Bliege Bird, and D.W. Bird (2013). To kill a kangaroo: understanding the decision to pursue high-risk/high-gain resources. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London B.

49 Scelza, B.A., R. Bliege Bird, D.W. Bird (2014). Bush tucker, shop tucker: production and consumption in an Aboriginal outstation. Journal of Ecology of Food and Nutrition 53:98-117. Scelza, B.A. (2008). Extended parental investment among Martu Aborigines. PhD. Dissertation, University of Washington. Scelza, B. and R. Bliege Bird (2008). Group structure and female cooperative networks in Australia’s Western Desert. Human Nature 19:231–248. Tonkinson, R. (2007). The Mardu Aborigines: On the road to somewhere. Globalization and Change in Fifteen Cultures: Born in One World, Living in Another, pp. 225-255. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Tonkinson, R. (2002). The Mardu Aborigines: Living the Dream in Australia’s Desert, 3rd edition. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth. Walsh, F. (2008). To hunt and to hold: Martu Aboriginal people’s uses and knowledge of their country, with implications for co-management in Karlamilyi National Park and the Great Sandy Desert, Western Australia. PhD. Dissertation, University of Western Australia.