Vol 22

April / May 2014

Kanyirninpa
Jukurrpa
PAGE 01

PAGE 04
PAGE 07
PAGE 09

PAGE 11
PAGE 18
Elders find old
water holes
Using helicopters
to put fire into
country
Ranger program
update
Mankarr
populations being
monitored
Martu visit
Warlpiri to learn
about IPAs
Community Access
Library now in
Roebourne Prison
1
During May, Martu spent two weeks working with
a helicopter to find and record the location
of yintakaja (waterholes) to the east of Well
33 and in Karlamilyi. This work continues the
very successful helicopter mapping that was
undertaken in 2012 and 2013.
We spent a week with the helicopter based at
Well 33, where the Punmu rangers, assisted by
four rangers from Parnngurr, set up a very good
camp. Kumpaya also came from Parnngurr as
the Kinyu area and the area east of Kunawarritji is
her country. Kumpaya went up in the helicopter
every day and she and her grandson, Clifton,
did a fantastic job in finding many rock holes
and other places that had not been visited for
many years.
The rangers also found some places that were
accessible by motor vehicle. A total of 22
places were found and their locations recorded
by GPS. Many photographs were taken of
these places and stories were recorded. All this
information will be kept safe for Martu, so that the
rangers can clean out the waterholes and look
after them, and future generations of Martu can
go back to these places.
Places that were found included Papuly, Nganjirr,
Yinyaru, Wanayantil, Pinkari, Kiwirl and many
others. All the rangers were able to visit Papuly
and Wanayantil by vehicle, and also some other
places close to tracks.
Cover: water at Warntili. This page from
top: Nancy Chapman and Cassandra
Nanudie at Jamparri; Kumpaya Girgiba
leading the helicopter for the day;
Kumpaya, Danny and Clifton at Wanayantil
Elders find old water holes with the aid of
helicopters
2
Six women casual rangers from Punmu joined
the group for two nights and they were able
to visit Wanayantil and Kiwirl. The ladies were
disappointed at the state of Kiwirl. The water and
surrounding area was in poor condition due to
camels.
The trip gave the women the opportunity to
practice the preparation and maintenance
of a camp, including meal
planning, packing the vehicle,
camp setup, cooking and
vehicle maintenance. A
helicopter trip to Papuly at the
end of the trip was a highlight
for the womens team.
Ryan, the helicopter pilot, did
a great job in taking people to
the right places and keeping
everyone safe.
One night the group had
a barbecue at Well 33 for
Kunawarritji community and on
another night films and photos
from the helicopter mapping
where shown in Kunawarritji.
It was a very good weeks work
and all the rangers worked
very hard to make sure that
the helicopter mapping and
waru work was successful.
The week after working out at
Kunawarritji, the rangers focus
moved to Karlamilyi. The
work in Karlamilyi had three
objectives:
the Punmu rangers were
doing waru (fire) work with
the helicopter to the south
and west of Lake Dora;
the Punmu and Parnngurr
ranger team were finding a
good route for the Kalyuku
Ninti trip to Karlamilyi in June; and
Muuki, Waka, Minyawe and Nancy Chapman
were using the helicopter to find and record
yintakaja in Karlamilyi.
The Punmu rangers set up a very good base
camp on the bank of the Karlamilyi River at a
point where they had found a good place to
cross the river, and where there was open space
for the helicopter to land.
We used the helicopter to do some mapping
work and some waru work every day. Everyone
worked well together and the old people who
went up in the helicopter to do mapping work
were also able to point out good places for the
rangers to do waru work.
Waka and Minyawe visited Wawul and, after a
lot of searching in the helicopter, also found
Yaralalu and landed there
to tell their stories of that
place. Muuki and Nancy
Chapman showed us the
big water places at Jamparri
and Pulawarru. A total of nine
places were found that had
not been previously recorded.
After the Parnngurr rangers had
driven up along the river from
Parnngurr, both the Punmu
and Parnngurr teams visited
Jamparri with Muuki, Waka and
Minyawe.
They were able to make a
vehicle route for the Kalyuku
Ninti trip to follow and also
found a good camp site
close to the water. This will
enable about 60 people on
the Kalyuku Ninti trip to visit this
important wetland area.
This was another very
successful week and showed
us again how important it is
to have the helicopter to find
places that cannot be found
by vehicle.
We will be doing more
helicopter mapping work in
August, in the area to the east
of Lake Disappointment and
north to Pitu and also around
the Harbutt Ranges.
This page from top: rangers looking at the map with
Kumpaya; Alwyn, Clifton and Kumpaya with a grinding
stone found at Jurn; Levina with the turbidity tester at
Kiwirl rockhole. Opposite page clockwise from top left:
ranger team at Kiwirl; Kumpaya and Clifton at Jurn;
Kennedy at his fathers waterhole Wingarn
with the rangers; a perfect camp spot on
Karlamilyi River; Muuki ready to go; Muuki
at Japarl; Warnanjarra wetlands; Waka at
Parpanu soak
3
4
In May, KJ rangers headed off to Nyirripi, a
Warlpiri community located about 470 kms
northwest from Alice Springs in the Northern
Territory.
We had been invited to go with some Warlpiri
traditional owners, Central Land Council (CLC)
staff and rangers to a remote section of country.
We wanted to hear from them about their
Southern Tanami Indigenous Protected Area (IPA),
which is the largest in Australia. We also wanted
to see the way they use helicopters to burn
country.
As soon as we arrived, about 40 traditional
owners from Yuendumu, Willowra and Nyirripi
started to arrive with CLC staff from Alice Springs.
Before long a large convoy of Toyotas headed
off-track back towards Lake Mackay. For the next
few nights we camped at an important place
called Mina Mina.
Muuki and several of the Warlpiri elders went in
the helicopter to visit an important mens place
that Warlpiri hadnt been to for a
very long time.
Martu visit Warlpiri to
learn about IPAs
From top: Warlpiri traditional owners, CLC staff and KJ
Martu rangers; convoy heading towards Lake Mackay;
Muuki being shown country by the Warlpiri elders
5
The KJ group heard how since 2012 Warlpiri
traditional owners decided to look after their
country as an IPA. Warlpiri told us they declared
this IPA because they wanted to have more say
on what happens on their country. However,
they also wanted to be able to make money
from some parts of their country.
This IPA allowed them to do both of these things.
Today, the Granites Gold mine is within that IPA
area and this mine helps provide some of the
funds to manage the country through things like
the ranger program.
Trips like this (and the one last year to Groote
Eylandt) are an important way to learn about IPAs
and to help Martu decide if they want to declare
an IPA over their own country.
We also got to see the Warlpiri rangers running
the aerial incendiary machine from the
helicopter to put waru (fire) into the country. Like
Martu country, Warlpiri country is really big. Even
though the bigger helicopters that they use cost
more money, it means they can get the right
traditional owners up at same time that they
burn country. This is another story that the KJ
rangers will take back to the ranger teams and
communities for them to think about.
It was a great experience for all of us and would
like to thank all the CLC staff that helped us with
the visit. In particular we would like thank the
Warlpiri traditional owners for showing us their
country and making us feel so welcome on their
country.
From top left: Warlpiri traditional owners explaining
about IPAs; Martu ranges learning about the aerial
incendiary machine; burning on Warlpiri country
6
The start of April saw a great joint trip between the
Jigalong men, Parnngurr men and the Parnngurr
women ranger teams. The aim of the trip was to
open up new country south of Punkulyi (Mackay
ranges) for the rangers to work in.
The teams visited some amazing spots on the trip
including some old campsites, beautiful wetland
areas and waterholes that had not been visited in
a long time.
The Parnngurr women ranger team chose a water
source as a site to monitor regularly to help build
up a more reliable and informative data set on
the water quality at this site. On the trip new fauna
monitoring plots were carried out. The team
located tracks of the langamarlu (mulgara).
All of the teams agreed it is a place that will be
worth going back to visit to have a closer look at
how the area can be managed.
Last year the KJ Board approved the Martu
Healthy Country Plan which explains what is
important for Martu rangers on their country,
what they worry about and how the Martu
men and womens ranger teams will look after
country so that the waterholes are healthy, bush
tucker comes back and small animals like the
mankarr (bilby) increase in numbers.
The Healthy Country Plan was produced after
many discussions over the years with Martu who
have been working with KJ on country. It also
followed both informal and formal meetings in
each of the communities and lots of wangka
(discussions) on trips such as Kalyuku Ninti (return
to country) trips and ranger trips.
We have now made a film version of the
Healthy Country Plan which can be viewed
online or can be viewed from a USB stick.
The online version can be found on the KJ
website http://kj.org.au/films/
Ranger coordinators will be distributing USB
versions in the coming month.
New country opened
up for work south of
Parnngurr
Martu Healthy Country
Plan
From top: Jigalong mens, Parnngurr mens and
Parnngurr ladies ranger teams at the end of the Punkulyi
trip; Parnngurr and Jigalong rangers at Turrngul
From top: Martu Healthy Country plan; Martu
Healthy Country plan film
7
Mankarr (bilby) populations being monitored by
women ranger teams
Wanja Mankarr? Where is the
bilby?
Mankarr (bilby) populations
have continued to be
monitored by all three women
ranger teams during April and
May. The Punmu womens
team spent many day trips
during the past two months
with a specific focus on
checking the mankarr (bilby)
locations that had been highly
active at the end of 2013. It
seems that with the change
of seasons, many of the busy
areas have quietened down
and the mankarr have moved
to other nearby locations.
A sensor camera was set up
at a fresh mankarr burrow
where it is hoped some baby
mankarr images might be
captured. A favourite dingo
habitat was scoured for
scats to test to see if they
are having any impact on
nearby threatened species
populations.
The Parnngurr team also went
on a number of day trips to
locate new sites for mankarr
(bilby) and langamarlu
(mulgara) which will continue
to be monitored during the
year.
The Jigalong team found
strong evidence of the
mankarr (bilby) out near Pinpi
(Durba springs). Through their
tracking skills, the women were
able to find diggings, tracks
and burrows of three to four
mankarr within a 10km radius
of Pinpi.
The women think that the
mankarr managed to
outsmart a feral cat by using
old burrows as cover until the
danger disappeared. They
identified the two best places
to set up sensor cameras.
These cameras will record
picture stories of the life of
the mankarr and predators,
like feral cats and dingos. The
cameras will be collected on
a following visit out to Pinpi.
An eight minute film shows footage collected from a remote
sensor camera set up by the Jigalong men and women
rangers in 2012.
The remote sensor camera captured 219 days of desert life.
In the movie you see the movements of a mankarr as well
as other animals in the desert, in particular hungry wild cats.
The film was directed by Fiona Walsh, CSIRO and was
produced by Prevailing Winds Productions. To
watch the movie go to the films sections on the
KJ website. http://kj.org.au/films/
From top: scats collected by the
Punmu casual women rangers
nearby a mankarr population;
Janelle, Punmu casual woman
ranger, setting up a sensor camera
at a mankarr burrow; Bernice and
Nyaparu, Jigalong casual women
rangers, setting up a sensor
camera during their trip to Pinpi.
Bottom article: Karlson, Jigalong
ranger, setting up the remote
sensor camera outside a mankarr
burrow
8
KJ May board meeting
The KJ Board met in May with most Board
members attending apart from those who were
on the Warlpiri / Southern Tanami trip.
Like the previous meeting, the Board meeting
started with Land Management and Finance
sub-committee meetings. These allow the board
members to have more detailed discussions
about looking after country and the finances.
The Board meeting dealt with the usual reports regarding finance and operations as well as reviewed
the draft budget for 2014-15. The Board also reviewed an update to the Healthy Country Plan,
progress to date against KJs strategic plan and the Board priorities. The review of the Strategic Plan
will be finalised next meeting.
The Board is very focussed on workplace health and safety matters and making sure that everyone
who works with KJ is safe. At the last two meetings the Board has made suggestions or raised
concerns for follow up or action by staff.
During the school holidays the Parnngurr mens
and womens ranger teams and the Jigalong
mens ranger teams were involved in the School
Holiday program.
The Parnngurr men and women rangers
organised a night out at Warntili. There was a
great turn out with a large group of about 60
people coming to enjoy the beautiful location.
The senior women on the team taught the
younger children how to look after country using
traditional knowledge and western science. The
kids loved all that kapi (water) in the lake and
everyone would have liked to stay for longer.
The Jigalong mens ranger team assisted in
taking a busload of kids on an exciting trip to
Burrum Burr for an overnight camp. The trip went
through some spectacular country and a couple
of exciting parnajarrpa (goanna) hunts provided
plenty of entertainment for the kids, especially
when one parnajarrpa doubled back and ran
under the bus and was met with a chorus of
screams.
Rangers work with the school holiday program
From top: KJ Board members meeting in
Newman; Parnngurr men and womens
rangers with the community during the
School Holiday program
9
Two weeks were recently spent putting waru
(fire) back into country. Twenty rangers from
Punmu and Kunawarritji and waru man (Gareth)
spent the first week outside of Kunawarritji doing
waru work with the helicopter. The use of the
helicopter gave the rangers from Punmu and
Kunawarritji an opportunity to have a look at the
area from the air, and do some waru work in
areas that could be affected by summer fires.
The situation there is tricky for waru at the
moment. There were big fires there in 2012 that
burnt a lot of the area between Gary Junction,
the Canning Stock Route and the lakes to the
north. Almost all the areas that werent burnt two
years ago look ready to burn now. This made
it very difficult to put small fires in. The rangers
had a good look at the areas from the ground
and air, and compared the fire scar maps
to what they saw. Using that information, they
were able to burn in areas east and south of
the community. The fires did not damage the
trees like summer fires do so they can continue
to provide some protection. There is a lot of
opportunity to work in this area, especially now
that more of the waterholes have been visited
again.
The week after Kunawarritji, the Punmu rangers
headed to Karlamilyi River. One of the big
focuses for this week was burning, with important
wetlands along the river and near the edge of
Lake Dora being affected by wildfires in the last
few years. The wetlands were full of water, which
meant that rangers could safely burn without
damaging the vegetation at the edge of the
wetlands.
The difference in the areas that had been burnt
in summer was obvious from the helicopter, with
water being clear where the edges
of the lakes were unburnt and murky
in the burnt areas. The rangers fire
work is helping to improve the health
of these places.
Using helicopters to help Martu put waru into country
10
The waru lit in this week was
smaller than expected, with
still days and humid nights.
The older areas of paru
(spinifex) that were lit burnt
slowly, without damaging
trees, and the other areas
didnt burn much at all.
Maybe next time we will have
some more luck with the
wind.
All the Punmu men rangers
were able to have a turn
in the helicopter and most
of the men rangers from
Parnngurr as well. The
helicopter work has been
great for visiting country
that would otherwise be too
hard to access. By working
together with the old people
mapping country at the
same time as doing other
work, we have a great
opportunity to learn about
and look after country at the
same time.
Previous page: Muti inspecting
ranger fires near the Canning Stock
Route Between well 32 and 33.
This page from top: fire beyond
the shrub lands surrounding Kuny
Kuny; Maclean showing the a
patchy fire near the Canning Stock
Route; Charleston burning near
Kuny Kuny; Wananjarra wetlands of
the south west side of Lake Dora.
A hot summer fire has damaged
the vegetation surrounding the
wetlands on one side, affecting
the water quality; the other side
has been protected through cool
season burning by the rangers
11
Jigalong mens ranger team
The Jigalong rangers have been
involved in taking primary school
children out on country during the
school holiday program, trips up
through Punkulyi (Mackay Range) to
open up new country to manage,
waru (fire) work along Savory Creek
and heaps of work back out at Pinpi.
The team had a two-night trip out to
Savory Creek to conduct some waru
work. The team burnt a large section
of the creek and then headed down
the track toward Well 15 and lit some
more waru.
The Jigalong rangers helped to plant
a range of native and fruit trees at
three houses in the community. The
Jigalong school also received a
donation of plants for use around
their new community fire circle near
the schools front gates.
At the end of May the Jigalong team
headed out to Pinpi for a big week of
work. The team successfully installed
the information panels at Pinpi Gorge
which was a huge achievement for
the team.
The team put in small waru burns to
protect the recently translocated
warru (rock wallaby) population.
Bollards were also installed at Pinpi to
create a buffel grass exclusion zone
within the Pinpi Gorge campground
area. The rangers then spent an
afternoon removing buffel plants
from the area.
Mens ranger program update
From top: Jigalong rangers standing in
front of the Savoury creek burn; finished
information shelter; Nullagine talking to
the team about the waru; Justin, Lindsay
and Cedric putting in a small waru along
the creek line; Jigalong rangers removing
buffel at Pinpi
April and May have seen many trips and activities undertaken by all
three mens ranger teams. Additional highlights which are not included in
other articles in the newsletter are outlined below.
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12
Parnngurr mens ranger team
The Parnngurr rangers have been busy with
Kalyuku Ninti scouting, the Punkulyi trip, the
school holiday program as well as waru (fire)
work. The team had a look at the fires scar
map near Copper Hill to identify an area
where there was a lot of unburnt spinifex.
Afterwards they went out to the nominated
sites to do burning to break up the old spinifex.
The Parnngurr rangers also went to take a
look at the remote cameras that were set
up in front of caves north of Parnngurr where
last March they had discovered signs of
warru (black flanked rock wallabies) . The
cameras had a motion sensor and as soon
as something jumps in front of the lens it will
take a photo no matter whether day or night.
The result was sensational. Out of 12 cameras,
11 had plenty of photos of warru. It looks like
there is a healthy population with animals of
all ages.
Also on the photos were tilti (black goanna),
kirti-kirti (hill kangaroo) and minguwa (echidna),
piwi (owl) and other birds. Unfortunately, also
pujikatu (cat) and walytaki (fox) were caught
on the camera. They are a threat to the warru
especially to the young ones.
The team is planning to do some trapping
later on in the field season to identify whether
the warru are related to the ones out at
Kaalpi.
From top: Parnngurr rangers after a days
burn; Hayden and Alwyn at one of the lakes
during the Kalyuku Ninti scouting trip; a warru
captured on the remote sensor camera north
of Parnngurr
13
Punmu and Kunawarritji mens ranger
team
The Punmu and Kunawarritji rangers have
been very busy assisting with the helicopter
mapping and waru (fire) work.
They also have managed to completed their
firearm training in the community and were
also involved in a police search for a missing
man on the Canning Stock Route.
Punmu ranger teams have been working
with Nyaparu (Bob) Richards from Greening
Australia to green-up the communities. The
Punmu rangers helped Nyaparu plant a
number of gardens in the community.
While the Punmu team was assisting with the
helicopter mapping and waru work, the team
also took time to do some scouting for the
upcoming Karlamilyi Kalyuku Ninti (return to
country trip) in June.
The team made a good track across the river
to Jampati, a place with lots of kapi (water)
that the group will visit on the 10 day trip. The
Parnngurr team were checking the road on
the southern part of Karlamilyi to Parnngurr.
Cameraman (Nyaparu Wells) was also with
the Punmu team making a helicopter safety
training movie as well as gathering footage for
the 2014 ranger video, which we are looking
forward to seeing.
From top: the Punmu and Kunawarritji rangers travelling
between well 37 and 38 helping a police search; Damien,
NB, Dwayne and Gavin at Jampati on the Karlamilyi River; at
the camp on Karlamilyi having wangka (talk) about waterholes
and waru
14
Womens ranger program update
The womens ranger program has been launched in Parnngurr with the team moving from a casual
program of 10 days a month into a program that has work every week. In May the team were
excited to receive their uniforms. Jigalong and Punmu teams are now referred to as casual women
rangers with the program operating 10 days each month in the communities. All of the teams have
been busy in April and May.
Parnngurr womens ranger team
The has been a shift in focus this field season as the
Parnngurr womens ranger team have extended their
day trips and are working together with the Parnngurr
mens ranger teams travelling further afield. Working
together provides a holistic approach in managing
country and has the desired outcome of healthy
people, healthy country. This approach is more in
step with the way Martu would have travelled and
managed country in the pujiman (bushman) times.
The Parnngurr women rangers have been involved
in the joint trip to Punkulyi (MacKay rangers) and the
school holiday program. The also team participated
in a day trip out with the Parnngurr mens team and
Alicia Whittington from the Department of Parks and
Wildlife Services, to determine if there is a small
population of the warru (black flanked rock wallaby).
The teams set up sensor cameras and collected
scats.
In June, the Parnngurr womens team will be involved
in a seven-day Kalyuku Ninti (return to country trip)
to parts of the Karlamilyi (Rudall River). This will be a
special trip to reconnect traditional owners and their
families to country and water sources.
From top: Parnngurr women ranger
team in their new uniforms; burning
at Warntili; putting in a small waru
outside of Parnngurr
15
Jigalong casual womens
ranger team
The Jigalong casual womens
ranger team ran six day-trips
in April as well as a five-day
camping trip out to Pinpi (Durba
Springs) in May.
There are many women getting
involved in the program and
are keen to work with other
communities. Thirty-two women
participated in the program over
the past two months with ten
being completely new to ranger
work.
The main activities included
looking after water sources
and keeping an eye on native
animals. Four young girls also
came out with the team to learn
tracking and land management
skills from their aunties and elders.
Over the past two months, the
women tested water quality
in six water sources, including:
Ngujapunya and Nyatjurra
rockholes and Nuka, Meeka, Pinpi
and Yurltuwinti springs.
The women tested each of
the springs in the morning and
the afternoon, to learn about
changes in water quality through
the day. The women are looking
to select two springs that can
be tested like this on a regular
basis. This information will help
create a picture of the daily and
monthly health of a selection of
permanent water sources in the
Martu determination.
The women got their hands dirty
by clearing channels connecting
some of the springs and their
lower pools of water. Using sticks,
shovels and hands they cleared
out mud, muck and algae to
help the water flow. They also
shared stories about the origins of
the water and special features of
the springs.
One objective in managing
country is keeping an eye on sites
where special animals have been
seen in the past.
The Jigalong casual women
rangers completed tracking in six
old fauna monitoring sites. They
found many signs of yalapara
(goanna), kilu (spinifex hopping
mouse), karlaya (emu) and kipara
(bush turkey).
Sadly, there were also many signs
and sightings of pest animals
like cat, camel, donkey and
horse. Another objective of fauna
monitoring has been to see if
there are any signs of threatened
species in new areas. Three new
sites were found in April and May.
The Jigalong team also
participated in weeding of
Mossman Burr grass out at the
Pinpi (Durba Springs) camping
site.
Mossman Burr grass has recently
established itself in the camping
ground and is spreading quickly.
It could easily threaten the areas
west of the range, where mankarr
(bilby) populations are known
to exist. The main plant itself
was easily to pull out. However,
the burrs are more difficult to
manage sticking to clothes and
falling back down to the ground
in new areas.
The women burnt their weed
collection to reduce this threat.
Follow-up weeding will be
important. It will be good to
manage this more strategically,
by weeding when there is minimal
seed.
From top: Bernice Fred getting her
hands dirty to clean Nuka spring;
Meana Samson and Moranda Burton
clearing water channels at Nuka
spring; removing Mossman Burr from
Pinpi campground; the
Jigalong casual women
rangers signing a tourists
Canning Stock Route
booklet at Pinpi
16
Punmu casual womens
ranger team
The Punmu casual womens team
have been busy with a number
of day trips completing a large
range of different work on country.
The team have trialled a new
CyberTracker device and
completed fauna monitoring in
old and new locations.
The women joined with the Punmu
mens ranger team on a day trip
to Yijinypa with Minyawe. It was a
great opportunity for the teams to
work together, especially when it
came to getting over some of the
bigger dunes. Minyawe shared
his experience of this place from
travelling through as a young
man.
The Punmu casual women
rangers also joined the Punmu
and Kunawarritji mens team for
the helicopter mapping and waru
work out of Well 33.
Water monitoring has been
conducted included the
drinkability test at Jila Jila. Weed
management has also been
undertaken with a patch of buffel
grass being dug up, bagged
and burnt. This will become a
test area to return to for buffel
management planning.
The Punmu women casual
rangers will have more chances
to get further out on country this
year. The trips will be easier to
prepare for, as there is now a
storage space in the community
to keep the teams equipment in.
The womens team grows every
work week, with women that have
not worked in the CfoC program
before coming on board. The
new team members are learning
how to use technology to record
traditional ecological knowledge
as well as using western science
to help look after country.
From top: Cassandra and Levina in the helicopter; Rosie and
Mulyatingki discuss the reptiles they know; Punmu casual
women rangers conducting water monitoring; Pamela,
Shaylene, Fiona, Tasha and Mulyatingki digging and bagging
a small patch of buffel grass
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Waru (fire) planning
In April, all the ranger coordinators and waru man
(Gareth) got together in Newman to talk about
the waru (fire) work plan for the year as well as
ways to ensure that waru is safe and good for the
country. By working together to learn Martu ways
and new scientific ways of using waru, we can
continue to improve the health of the country.
Leigh Sage, who is a waru man with the
Department of Parks and Wildlife Services in Perth
has been coming out to Martu country for the
last three field seasons. In May, Leigh spent a
week in Parnngurr finalising the burn plan for the
community.
The Department of Parks and Wildlife Services will
help the community and the rangers to do the
waru protection work around the community to
make sure that the community will be safe from
hot summer fires. There will be a visit to Punmu as
well, to talk with the community about their plan.
The Parnngurr mens ranger team took Leigh
out to an area that needed some waru work
near Copper Hill. Leigh has been learning a
lot from Martu, and has many skills that Martu
can also learn to do different waru work. The
partnership between the Department of Parks
and Wildlife Services and KJ rangers is strong. By
working together we are finding the best ways to
manage country.
Ranger Leadership
program
The Ranger Leadership program started properly
at the start of May. Ngangkari (Tim Schneider)
arrived with his family to live in Newman at
Easter.
We have started to talk to all the leadership
participants in the communities about what
they want to do. This will include trips to see
other places and learn from other groups. The
first big trip like this happened in May, when
Ngangkari and Tristan took Muuki and a group
of rangers to Warlpiri country, to see what the
people over there are doing with ranger work
and with a Indigenous protected area. They
will tell everyone in the communities what they
have learned.
Members of the leadership program each have
a personal project every year. Clifton had a
big project, working on the helicopter mapping
with his grandmother. He organised a lot of the
work and helped Kumpaya to identify many
waterholes. He took a lot of responsibility but
also learned a lot doing that work. Everybody in
KJ was impressed with his work.
We are asking each of the leadership
participants to tell us what sort of program
they want, what they want to learn, why it is
important to them and what they
want to do. These interviews are
very important for building a Martu
ranger leadership program, so that
everything is done the right way.
From top: Muuki and the KJ rangers arriving at Nyirripi
community; Clifton inspecting country for fire south of
Kunawarritji
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The roll-out of the Community Access
Library (CAL) continued in May with the
installation of the library at Kunawarritji as
well as the Roebourne prison. Feedback
from the prison has been very positive
about the program.
I just wanted to drop you a brief
email to say thank you so much
for setting up the wonderful Martu
archive in our library. The guys
come in every day that the library
is open, they gather around the
computer and look at the photos
mostly, they tell stories and laugh
and joke. Some of the guys have
got quite emotional seeing the
images of their families and have
been brought to tears. The archive
is such a wonderful resource and I
just wanted to say thank you for the
hard work that has obviously gone
into setting this up.
B.Colston
Roebourne Regional Prison

CAL is now installed Jigalong, Parnngurr,
Punmu, Kunawarritji, Nullagine, Warralong,
Bidyadanga, KJ office Newman, East
Pilbara Independent Service Newman and
the Womens shelter in Newman. There is
one more computer to be installed which
will be happening early June at Wangka
Maya in Hedland. This will then total 11
sites where Martu can access photos, films,
documents and audio files.
In the last two months a lot of work
has gone into developing the plant
profiles in the system. Arpad Kalotas, an
environmental consultant who worked with
the Martu in the 1980s, has been assisting
in updating the profiles and linking the
profiles to images. So far there are 172
flora profiles in the database. Work has
also continued on importing more photos
and other objects with a further 3,000
media items being added to the CAL
bringing the total to 27,560.
If any Martu are interested in working on
CAL please contact Zan at the KJ office.
Community Access
Library now in
Roebourne Prison
Photos: Kunawarritji residents enjoying the new
computer installed in the office
19
1 - 10 June: Karlamilyi Kalyuku Ninti trip
9 - 14 June: Jigalong rangers CSR trip
16 - 21 June: Tree planting in Parnngurr
with Greening Australia
16 - 27 June: Jigalong casual women
ranger work
18 June: 2012 KJ ranger movie on
NITV 9.30pm
18 - 27 June: Helicopter burning Jigalong
and Parnngurr rangers
25 - 27 June: Jigalong rangers TEK trip
25 - 27 June: Cultural Awareness
Newman
1 -3 July: Remote First Aid training
4 - 16 July: Punmu casual women
ranger work
7 - 11 July: Nullagine Football Carnival
13 - 21 July: Kulyukartu Kalyuku Ninti Trip
14 - 19 July: Jigalong rangers working
with School Holiday
Program
14 -19 July: Tree planting in Jigalong
with Greening Australia
14 - 21 July: Parnngurr women rangers
on country trip Williams/
Kadibil family
21 July - 1 August: Jigalong casual
women ranger work
21 July - 9 August: Jigalong rangers
Certificate II
28 July - 2 August: Tree planting in
Parrngurr with
Greening Australia
29 - 31 July: Cultural Awareness
Newman
Whats coming up
Right: Leon Taylor, Parnngurr ranger, happy seeing
the result of his waru work
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Funders, Partners and Supporters