Mutuka Story explores the ubiquitous role of the mutuka (motorcar) in Martu life. Once an unfamiliar and startling presence that marked the first encounters between Martu people and settlers, the mutuka has since become deeply embedded within contemporary Martu culture, enabling the continuation of traditional land management and hunting practices, kinship ties and access to Country.
Through the themes of ‘The Mutuka Reclaimed’, ‘Before the Canning Stock Route’ and ‘Returning Home’, the exhibition explores how a colonial technology has been repurposed to empower Martu culture, transformed into an indispensable part of everyday life. Today, cars enable hunting trips, journeys between communities, maintenance of kinship networks, and access to traditional homelands. For many artists, painting is also connected to the practical goal of purchasing and maintaining a vehicle. The mutuka is equally integral to Martumili Artists operations: the Martumili bus and field cars travel around Newman and across vast distances between communities, transporting artists, art materials and artworks.
The exhibition also reflects on movement through Country across generations. It honours the Elders who traversed these landscapes during pujiman (traditional, desert dwelling) times and along historic routes such as the Canning Stock Route. Artist Kumpaya Girgirba reflects:
"[…] we still walk through our country, now there are lots of Toyotas on the CSR [Canning Stock Route], tourists, Martu and the Martu rangers working on the country to look after it".
Mutuka Story celebrates the innovation, adaptation and enduring connection between people and Country across the Western Desert, and the joy, status, and memory that can be embodied within a humble mutuka.
The exhibition has been extended until the 14th November 2026. Head over to this link to explore the new artworks!
