Cirrus@Austlit

'These are the hills around Lumpulumpu, a place with mixed memories for me. It is beautiful Country with sad feelings from the past. This is my mother and father’s Country, between Christmas Creek station and Cherrabun station. Before I was born, my family lived around this area. It is good rocky Country. There is good living water here. My father [father’s brother] was killed here at Lumpulumpu.' (Source: Mira webiste)

'This is Kaningarra, near Well 48 on the Canning Stock Route. There were little birds that [would] come before the rain to the waterhole, but now it’s all dried up. Old people used to sing for the rain and the birds would come down.' (Source: Mira website)

'My grandfather went to Lake Disappointment … that [cannibal] woman grabbed his arm and put her very long sharp fingernail through his wrist and paralysed him. [She] took him to a group of other cannibals, ready to cook him up to eat. My grandfather is a strong maparn [magic man]. Lucky for him, he got out of there. They were trying to kill him and eat him.' (Source: Mira website)

' It’s dangerous, that Country. I’ve seen that [cannibal] man, he’s there and I know it. I don’t know how white people go over there. If they were to run into him he would eat them straight out. Kumpupirntily, that’s a no good place … leave it alone and have nothing to do with it at all. Just leave it how it is.'

'Puntawarri is the Country where Pukarlyi grew up as a young girl. This painting is a collaborative work by Pukarlyi and her granddaughter, Hayley Atkins, one of the curators of this exhibition. ' (Source: Mira website)

'Kumpaya Girgaba laid out the initial design for this painting, which all the artists collaboratively customised and elaborated. When the painting was nearing completion, Kumpaya called out the names of all the waterholes depicted here. This painting, which was produced by 14 women artists at Kunawarritji (Well 33), represents a stretch of Country crossed by the Canning Stock Route. It depicts a number of the waterholes that were made into wells, but many other permanent and ephemeral water sources are also included. When the Canning Stock Route was in use as a droving highway, many of the artists relied on these other waters to ensure their safe passage through this contested land.' (Source:Mira website)

'This is a well called Martilirri [Well 22]. And around there is also Kalypa [Well 23] and Kartarru [Well 24], in the middle. And in summertime we could stop in those places because they have permanent water. After the rain we could move back to our homeland because the rock holes and soaks would all be filled again. And the footprints are a Dreamtime story of a man looking for a water. Wanti [woman] and a man travelling together and flying. When they checked it, there was no water around that rock hole, and when there was no water they flew. They went forever. That was in the Dreamtime when they were walking around.' (Source: Mira website)

Six Martu women from central Western Australia created this painting, Martumili Ngurra, to tell the stories of their country.

'This painting shows two different chains of waters in the artist’s Country leading towards Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment). The larger black circles on the left of the painting depict ‘rubbish one waterholes, green one [algae] killed the water’. The smaller circles in the white line of Kupayiyura (Savory Creek) have been kept clean.' (Source: Mira website)

'This painting describes the journey of the Minyipuru while they were still travelling as a large group of sisters and their mothers. The white U-shapes represent them as they flew close to Parnngurr, where women’s law tells that an important event took place. Afterwards, they flew on to Kalypa. The dance for this site is performed by both men and women.' (Source: Mira website)

'This painting represents the tali (sandhills), jila (waters) and warla (salt lakes) in the Country surrounding the artist’s birthplace.' (Source: Mira website)

'Clifford’s father, Charlie Brooks, was away travelling when Rover was taken by drovers. When Charlie returned and found Rover gone, he went looking for him. On this journey he encountered a horrible scene somewhere near Well 41' (Source: Mira website)

'This tapestry is based on a collaborative painting, by eight Indigenous men from regions around the Canning Stock Route, which was acquired by the National Museum of Australia in 2008.The Canning Stock Route, running almost 2,000 km across Western Australia, marks an intersection of Indigenous and non-indigenous histories.Their painting depicts the layout of the land where, for generations, their tribes have come together to trek from waterhole to waterhole, covering the 200 km between Kunawarritji and Wajaparni.' (Source: austrapestry website)

Clifford Brook's father set off in search of his brother Rover Thomas from Martilirri (Well 22), just north of Lake Disappointment. Clifford painted this canvas on his return from the ‘return to Country’ trip, having been given permission to paint this area by Jeffrey James, who, like Clifford’s fathers, also belongs to Kunawarritji (Well 33).

'Charlie Brooks and Rover Thomas were finally reunited in the 1980s, a lifetime later, after family recognised the artist’s face in a newspaper. ' (Source: Mira website)

'Wantili is significant because this is where Kartujarra, Manyjilyjarra, Putujarra and Warnman people all come together. It is a jurnu (soak) and a claypan, where Jukurrpa women threw seeds. Well 25 is located close to Wantili at Yilkarr, but because of the site’s significance this well is usually referred to as Wantili.' (Source: Mira website)