Tura has been working on two community-led creative projects in collaboration with Martumili Artists and Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa (KJ), extending our long-running work across the Western Desert.
As part of the Martumili Wellbeing & Empowerment project, Tura facilitator Annika Moses spent a week at Martumili Gallery working with local Martu artists and arts workers to activate the Kulininpalaju Sound Archive for the first time. Collected over three years of on-Country field-recording workshops in Punmu, Kunawarritji and Parnngurr, the archive holds more than 100 hours of sounds, stories and environmental recordings.
Martu artists are now experimenting with arranging, editing and reshaping these recordings into new sound artworks – either as standalone works or paired with painted pieces – using a tactile MIDI interface in a pop-up sound studio at the gallery. After a week of collaboration, several exciting new artistic outcomes are already emerging.
New songs for Martu children with KJ Rangers
Following this work in Newman, Annika travelled more than 10 hours into the Great Sandy Desert communities of Jigalong and Punmu to collaborate on a new project with the KJ Rangers’ Wantikajaku Jijikajaku program for women and children.
Across two weeks, Tura and KJ facilitated songwriting workshops with Martu community members to create new children’s songs in Martu Wangka (language). Six new songs recorded with local voices are now being mixed and mastered to be distributed across Martu communities, schools and playgroups, accompanied by a songbook with lyrics, translations and illustrations. Produced by KJ in collaboration with Tura, this pilot project explores how songwriting can support language learning, storytelling and intergenerational knowledge transfer.
Looking ahead, and as part of the Kimberley Song Muster, Tura hopes to facilitate songwriting exchanges between Martu communities and Kimberley collaborators – strengthening creative connections across regions.
Across both projects, Tura’s role centres on artist development: supporting Martu sound artists to deepen technical and conceptual skills, facilitating the recording of new materials, and creating space for community-led experimentation with sound as a way of sharing Country.
Tura and the artists thank the communities that have partnered with us, and the Martu and Nyiyaparli people for their ongoing care, custodianship and connection to the land. We thank the Elders and community members who have welcomed us onto Country.
Photo captions
#1: Workshop participant Alysha Taylor with Annika Moses by Kodi Graham
#2: Julieanne Thomas, Debra Thomas, Norelle Barndabba recording new songs in Martu Wangka at Rawa Community School, Punmu
