Yunkurra Billy Atkins, Jigalong, 2008:
I’m telling you that that cannibal mob is out there and they are no good.
The power of the Jukurrpa, and of the ancestral beings whose actions shaped the world, remains present in the land. These ancestral beings, who often transformed into the landscapes they created, can also affect living people and events. Along the Canning Stock Route, this influence is felt most powerfully at Kumpupirntily (Lake Disappointment).
Kumpupirntily is a vast dry salt lake that dominates the country east of the Canning Stock Route, from wells 18 to 21. Explorer Frank Hann came across it in 1896. Having followed creeks that flowed inland in the hope of finding a freshwater lake, he named it after the disappointment he felt.
Hann knew nothing of Kumpupirntily’s cultural importance. One of the most dangerous areas in the Western Desert, the lake is home to cannibal beings known as Ngayurnangalku (the word means ‘will eat me’).
The Ngayurnangalku live under the surface of the lake, in their own world, with its own sky and a sun that never sets. They are said to resemble people, except for their large fangs and the long curved fingernails they use to catch and hold their victims.
Cannibals and the Canning
Martu people will not set foot on the lake’s salt-encrusted surface for fear of those who live beneath. According to Yunkurra Billy Atkins, even passing by can be dangerous:
When the wind is blowing we can go there, can go past. If the wind stops you can’t go any further, because he is there.
Such places made life difficult for Aboriginal people working with the drovers. As a boy, Frank Gordon travelled the route several times with his parents:
[Cannibal] there, properly. Might kill me fellas. All the devil. We was frightened all the way along.
As they approached the lake, Aboriginal stockmen would muffle their horses’ bells so as not to alert the cannibals to their presence. Yunkurra also describes how they sought the aid of local maparn (magic men):
Drovers used to get a maparn to go front, make a big wind come up so they could go through.
The cannibal Jukurrpa
In the Jukurrpa, when Ngayurnangalku were living all over the desert, they came together for a big meeting at Kumpupirntily, and debated whether or not they should stop eating people. Jeffrey James continues the story:
That night there was a baby born. They asked, ‘Are we going to stop eating the people?’ And they said, ‘Yes, we going to stop,’ and they asked the baby, newborn baby, and she said, ‘No’. The little kid said, ‘No, we can still carry on and continue eating peoples,’ but this mob said, ‘No, we’re not going to touch.’
Following the baby, one group continued to be cannibals, dividing the Ngayurnangalku forever into ‘good’ and ‘bad’. The bad people remained at Kumpupirntily, but the good were kept safe by ‘bodyguards’.
The bodyguards were saving all the people. Sandhill in the middle of the lake separates good people and bad people.
![A multicolour painting on brown linen with three red C shapes outlined in yellow, white, beige and blue dots, in a line diagonally across the painting. To the right of these is a blue circle and orange rectangle motif, then a rounded rectangular shape filled with red and yellow horizontal lines with a blue outlined rectangle at the top. At the top of the painting there are seven concentric oval in red, yellow, blue, green and purple. The lower part of the painting has a pale section to the right and a yellow, beige and red dot filled section to the left. Text at the top left reads '122 x 76cm DS + JB/73/MM' and at the lower left edge reads '48 x 30'. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0007/714544/Kumpupirntily_2.jpg)
Kumpupirntily by Jakayu Biljabu and Dadda Samson
![A painting on board with a humanoid figure in black lying down with black feet-like motifs either side of it. In the top part of the painting there is a concentric circle in reds with green and blue dotted edges, as well as a mountain like feature in purples with a row of green trees and foliage in front. Next to this in the top centre is a red oval shape with blue shapes inside it with a line of trees in greens at the lower edge. Below this is a line of larger trees with white trunks and green foliage in front of a purple and lavender dotted background. Below the humanoid figure is a section with small green and white clumps of foliage in rows over a blue-red background. At the bottom of the painting is an off white section with a pencil drawing of a human figure. At the left side of the painting is a section of orange overlaid with rows of undefined grey-blue dots, and two smaller red sections with rows of blue-grey dots on them. At the right side of the painting is a curve edged shape with splashes of green, blue and red paint mixed together with a border of blue, green and red. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0008/714545/Cannibal-Story_3.jpg)
Cannibal Story by Billy Atkins
![A painting on canvas with a supine human figure in red, outlined in yellow dots, with facial features in black, in the centre. The figure is surrounded by boomerang, rock and circle motifs in grey or blue on a background of blue, orange, yellow, and grey dots. There is a brown scalloped horizontal line below the figure, then underneath that a red background with dot edged blue circle and grey boomerang motifs. Above the figure is a red background with a wavy edge and trees and undergrowth in green, black and white. Above the red section is a line of reptiles including geckos covered in white and yellow spots with a few small trees. The text at the top reads 'BA/194/MM' while text at the bottom reads 'Billy Atkins 106 x 106 08-284'. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0009/714546/Kumpupirntily-Cannibal-Story_4.jpg)
Kumpupirntily Cannibal Story by Billy Atkins
![A red-orange toned painting on canvas with purple motifs outlined in white dots. There is a central wavy edged oval with a C shape above and below it. Inside the upper C shape are two circles and two stick like shapes, and above it there are two long horizontal lines and two wavy lines. There is a wavy and straight line between the upper C and the wavy oval, while next to the top of the wavy oval there are two small circles. The wavy oval has four vertical lines on both sides, one of which is wavy and one that is much shorter that the others. Between the wavy oval and the lower C shape there are two curved lines and two uneven oval shapes. Underneath the lower C are two uneven shaped horizontal lines. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0010/714547/Kumpupirntily_5.jpg)
Kumpupirntily by Yanjimi Peter Rowlands
![A rectangular painting on canvas with a black background and red shapes edged with cream dots. The shapes include two circles, two C shapes, two J shapes and 11 stick shapes. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0011/714548/Lake-Disappointment_6.jpg)
Lake Disappointment by Yanjimi Peter Rowlands
![A multicoloured dot painting on canvas with nine concentric brown, black and white circles connected by lines, edged and decorated with dotted lines in green, yellow, white, orange, pink, red, black and turquoise. The circles also have yellow, red, blue and black rings around them which merge together as the rings get larger. One of the circles has radiating lines of dots inside the rings. The background of the painting is pink with an overlay of dots in red, yellow, green, blue, orange, white and maroon. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0003/714549/Lake-Disappointment_7.jpg)
Lake Disappointment by Yanjimi Peter Rowlands
![A painting on brown linen with a wavy cream line punctuated with three blue and one black circle which are decorated with dots in yellow, red or purple, down the centre. The Wavy line is edged with dots in red on a blue-black underlay. To the left of the painting are for black round shapes graduating in size from top to bottom. These black shapes have yellow dotted lines radiating out from them over a red and yellow-brown background. The right side of the painting has seven black rounded shapes with blue dotted edges surrounded by a cream colour covered in red and yellow dots. Flanking both sides of this are horizontal stripes and rows of dots in red and brown, and also in blue and yellow. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0004/714550/nKumpupirntily_8.jpg)
Kumpupirntily by Billy Atkins
![A painting on brown linen with many concentric circles outlined in yellow with red and green tones inside on a background of aqua green. In the lower centre of the painting is a dark pink toned shallow crescent shape with a white-cream outline. To the upper left of it are five C shapes in green, orange, red, white, pink and yellow stripes. At the left edge there are six concentric circles in a vertical line. The section to the right of the painting has concentric circles in lines with cream and yellow outer section and green, yellow orange and pink in the centre. - click to view larger image](https://www.nma.gov.au/__data/assets/image/0005/714551/Puntawarri_9.jpg)
Puntawarri, Jilakurru and Kumpupirntily by Dadda Samson and Judith Samson
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