Waka Taylor, Burchell Taylor, Theo Richards and visitor Bill Laundy spot a feral camel they will aim to shoot for food.

The rich, beef-like taste of camel has only been on the Martu’s regular menu for the past decade or so. Camel numbers have grown exponentially in recent years, and there’s an estimated 60,000 now living on their native-title lands of 136,000 sq. km.

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Waka Taylor, Burchell Taylor, Theo Richards and visitor Bill Laundy begin to butcher the feral camel they have shot. There are about 60,000 feral camels that roam these lands.

Even though the dromedaries drink from and foul the few precious waterholes and eat vast amounts of vegetation, the animals are not often hunted by the Martu. Some of the older Martu people won’t eat the creatures, even crying when they see one killed. They say they feel sorry for them – as an introduced species, the animals don’t feature in any Dreaming stories so some Martu feel uncomfortable killing and eating them. And, watching the effort as the meat is cut into manageable chunks and manhandled onto the roof of the 4WD, you can see that a camel kill creates a lot of work.

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The word ‘Martu’ means ‘person with black skin’.

Each day at least one group of Martu hunts on traditional lands. And for the best part of a decade, two anthropologists from Stanford University in California, USA, have gone with them, documenting what, how and why they hunt. Douglas Bird and Rebecca Bliege Bird calculated that up to 50 per cent of the total Martu diet is still composed of bush foods like the wamala (bush tomato).

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Nyalangka Taylor, in her mid-60s, peels flesh out of a cooked parnajarlpa (goanna) she has caught.

Although traditional Martu law doesn’t dictate it, men and women generally choose different ventures. About 60 per cent of the time, the men undertake high-risk hunting – going for animals such as the fleet-footed kirti-kirti (euro) or the flighty kipara (Australian bustard), with hunting failure rates of about 80 per cent. Women choose the “safer” option of hunting the small parnajarlpa (sand goanna) 74 per cent of the time, banking on a 90 per cent chance of obtaining some, albeit smaller, amount of food – enough to feed their own family.

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Kumbaya Girgirba searches for the sleeping place of the parnajarlpa (sand goanna).

This area was burnt in a lightning strike last summer and there’s been no rain, so it’s barren and unremittingly shadeless. Termite mounds stand like some mini Stonehenge as the mercury nudges 33ºC. Kumbaya’s all-seeing eyes scan back and forth from the horizon to directly in front of her. She stops and turns to the left, following barely discernable tracks.

Suddenly she locks onto a much smaller track and follows it, snaking back and forth, then homing in with increasing speed on a toppled wattle, long-since dead. She springs into action. WHACK WHACK. With two quick overarm strikes of her crowbar onto the bush, and a quick sleight of hand, she’s pulled out a goanna

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Nyalangka Taylor cooks the goanna catch over hot coals.

Adding to the complex picture is the generous nature of Martu society. Prestige is gained not by owning more than others, but by giving away what you have – be it money, tobacco or food. Someone who is able to give away a large quantity of meat to others gains prestige, but usually will retain no more food than anyone else. A successful goanna hunter decides how to distribute her catch. However, a successful euro hunter places the carcass at the edge of camp and takes no further role in the butchering or distribution. Instead a senior man will assign the different cuts of meat to 10 or so family members of the hunter, or if they are not there, to others. So good or bad hunters will still receive about the same amount of food.

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Roderick Butt and Waka Taylor burn the bush, which is called ‘cleaning’ or ‘keeping country’.

Martu recognise five stages of vegetative regrowth in relation to fire. There’s nyurnma, where an area has just been burnt. Then the two most productive stages, waru-waru and nyukura, which might last a couple of years. The fire, and the free space it creates, stimulates some plants into growing, particularly woollybutt grass (the seeds of which can be ground up and made into a damper) and wattles. These stages also see a high diversity of fruits such as bush tomatoes or solanums.

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Tisharnee Taylor cuddles up to puppy Telly Telly while at home in the Parnngurr community.

Sometimes there are conflicts between the town-dwelling Martu and those living on the land, particularly when it comes to deals with mining companies or other outsiders. Politically savvy townies are more likely to want to strike a deal that could benefit Martu economically, but the others aren’t so sure. Nyalangka’s husband of 34 years Nyerri – a regal white-haired elder – gets a fierce glare in his eyes when I mention mining. Summoning the power of the Earth into one phrase he thunders: “Dreamtime in the ground – leave it there. No mineral.”

Elders like Nyerri pass on ancient rituals, knowledge and laws to the younger Martu. Curtis sums up the contradictions for young Martu living in the whirlwind of the 21st century, yet keeping their bare toes curled firmly in the red dirt: “Sometimes we’re caught up in white-man’s world, sometimes Martu world, sometimes in the middle. We don’t know which way to go.”

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Burchell Taylor, Roderick Butt and Theo Richards walk through a dry lake near Kurta-Kurta (Brother-Brother) in Western Australia.

The word Martu means ‘person with black skin, but since the 1980s it has been the label applied to the indigenous people of the Pilbara deserts – those with traditional lands around the central part of the Canning Stock Route in WA. Known as some of the last Aboriginal people to “come in from the desert” and adopt western ways, they have a strong culture, particularly here on their native-title lands, where about half their 1000 or so number live in a sprinkling of small communities around Karlamilyi National Park. Most other Martu are settled in Port Hedland and Newman.

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