OUR HISTORY

Martu people traditionally lived around the southern end of the Canning Stock Route which ran through the Great and Little Sandy Deserts from the towns of Halls Creek to Wiluna. These people lived a hunter-gatherer and firestick farming lifestyle in very harsh desert conditions.

With a history stretching back more than 25,000 years, the Martu occupation of the Western Desert area has nearly a dozen language groups and the indigenous population did not come into contact with Europeans’ until the turn of the century (1905-06) when the “Canning Stock Route” wells were being established and a year later the construction team for the ‘Rabbit Proof Fence’ set up a rations store at the site which was later to become ‘Jigalong’.

In the 1920s there was an extensive drought in the desert and Martu people were suffering, some made their way to the Jigalong Rations Depot set up on the Rabbit Proof Fence. They walked back to their homelands and informed other families of the food available at the depot. The local reliance on this rations store built up and was increased by the establishment of a camel breeding facility in the 1930’s and building of a Protestant Mission at the site in 1946. (Local Martu have also spent several generations as valued stockmen and pastoralists in the region.)

Jigalong became an Incorporated Body in 1973 and while the inhabitants are all inter-related; other communities in the area including Parngurr, Kunawarritji, Punmu and Irrungadji are managed within their own structure. All are restricted entry sites, requiring permission, with bans on the consumption of alcohol. These rules were structured by local elders to help maintain their lore & culture in the region

OUR CULTURE

Over thousands of years, Martu people have developed complex social systems and a highly evolved philosophic and spiritual relationship to the land, it's flora and fauna, to ensure both their own survival, as well as the seasonal renewal of nature. All of which is encoded in their concept of the 'jukurrpa' (Dreamtime).

Often referred to as the ‘Heart of the Western Desert’, Jigalong has long maintained its cultural links to the past and to the land, treating the passing of this experience to youth through story telling and the teaching of ‘Martu Wangka’ - still the main language spoken in households throughout Western Desert communities.