Wantiku tjuma (Women’s story)

A break in the wind lets Elder Annette Williams’ voice carry across the red sand at Mangkili camp. “That’s all the ladies sitting around who came on the trip ... we travelled from Wiluna, to Carnegie Station; we camped there, then we came here to Mangkili,” she says, gesturing towards a painting being created by Martu women, who are on the first women-only Birriliburu Ranger trip, supported by Bush Heritage and Desert Support Services staff.

“This is the story about the ladies who came on the trip – it’s about looking after Country and telling stories on Country and being strong,” Annette adds.

The ladies have travelled a day’s drive from Wiluna in Western Australia’s arid centre to reach the southeast corner of the Birriliburu Indigenous Protected Area (IPA). The IPA represents 6.6 million hectares of native title land and comprises three central-west desert regions – the Little Sandy Desert, Gibson Desert and the Gascoyne.

Among the IPA’s dunes and spinifex are the homes of threatened species such as Tjakura (Great Desert Skink), Mantangalku (Greater Bilby) and the Marsupial Mole.

Mangkili has long been a gathering place where people from all corners of the desert would come to camp, practice culture, and deepen their knowledge of Country. Here, for tens of thousands of years, generations have passed on Martu people’s complex understanding of how weather, plants, animals, humans, spirit and story interact.

With Martu knowledge, water and resources that sustain life can be found in abundance, even in a landscape that receives an average rainfall of 250-350 millimetres. While driving out to camp, we make a pit stop to energise ourselves using the old ways.

“It is late in the season, so grab the ones that are still flowering. Smack them on your palm and lick the wama that’s left behind,” explains Birriliburu Ranger Jennifer Morgan.

We learn that wama is a sweet sticky treat, sourced from various plants, including Yilyil (Flame Grevillea) and Kiyalkuna (Desert Heath Myrtle). One of its main uses is to revitalise those travelling in the desert, which has been done for a very long time.

“One site in the south-west of the IPA shows evidence of occupation dating back 50,000 years. This is the earliest evidence of people living in Australia’s sandy deserts,” says Stella Shipway, Healthy Country Manager for Bush Heritage, who works with the Birriliburu Ranger Program to support the delivery of their Healthy Country Plan.

Martu are determined to keep their connection to the landscape strong. The Healthy Country Plan identifies ecological and cultural values that are vitally important to Country and strategies to keep these values healthy, which are informed by both Traditional Knowledge and Western science. The ranger program then operationalises the plan through ranger trips to the IPA.

“Last year, two women Directors of the Birriliburu Land Management Company (governing body responsible for the land management of the Birriliburu IPA), expressed the need for a women’s trip.

With the end goal of building confidence in the young women to lead the trips themselves,” explains Stella.

In Martu community, women have distinct roles that contribute to everyday life. While these roles sometimes involve men, at other times, they’re kept strictly separate to ensure knowledge is accurately encoded as it is passed down through different generations. 

Women play a significant role in the procurement of food, and, through this, have developed a complex understanding of the plant species found on their Country and how to care for them.

Since colonisation began, it has become increasingly challenging for Martu to practise and transmit their culture and knowledge to the next generation.

Rita has been on many ranger trips and was one of eight senior Martu women who conceptualised and lead the creation of the Birriliburu Bush Tucker book, another significant project helping to safeguard and fortify both cultural and plant knowledge.

The book, published in late 2023, was created with the support of many members of the Martu community, Bush Heritage staff and other partners. From sweet treats such as wama to the healing Yipi-yipi (Caustic Bush), the book details 63 Martu plants, their relevant cultural stories, where to find, and how to use them. Over ten years, content for the book was recorded and compiled through multiple trips, conversations and workshops.

“There’s a lot of knowledge of people, and contemporary connections to plants as well as ancient knowledge from the older generations,” Stella says.

Martu say, “If Country is healthy, we are healthy.” The benefits of this relationship extend far beyond the dunes of the Birriliburu IPA and are sustained by cultural knowledge, which community-led projects like the Bush Tucker book and ranger trips help to keep strong •

We thank and gratefully acknowledge Mungarlu Ngurrarankatja Rirraunkaja (Aboriginal Corporation) RNTBC, Birriliburu Pty Ltd for their partnership and the Birriliburu Rangers and Martu community for inviting us to walk together to help heal country.