45 MINUTE YARNING CIRDLE - Martu knowledge leads an international science debate about linyji (fairy circles) and learning across generations
Tracks
Tully 3
| Tuesday, July 28, 2026 |
| 11:45 AM - 12:30 PM |
Speaker
Natasha Busher
Team Leader ‑ Cultural Knowledge Program
Kanyirninpa Jukurrpa
45 MINUTE YARNING CIRDLE - Martu knowledge leads an international science debate about linyji (fairy circles) and learning across generations
ISE Congress 2026 Abstract
Together we learn about Country, its features, and creatures. We’ve learnt a lot about bare circles common across Martu country and other desert countries. Martu call the circles ‘linyji’ or ‘panka’. International scientists call them ‘fairy circles’, while Australian scientists say ‘pavements’. Scientists argue about the circles.
Our Elders say the circles are the homes of ‘manyjurr’ or spinifex termites who build underground towns and ‘wartunyuma’ who fly from them. Some international scientists said it is plants, not termites, who cause the circles. We thought they had the wrong story. So, we worked with scientists then published a paper in a top science journal, Nature. We won an award.
Martu recognise linyji and manyjurr in grasslands to be ‘everywhere’, as common as bitumen in a city. Linyji surfaces were used by Old People to make seed cakes and spinifex glue. Linyji held drinking water and had other uses. All new to Australian science. Only recently have scientists seen that termite pavement patterns occur over almost 20% of Australia.
How did KJ Rangers and scientists learn about these things in Country? We listen to Elders and experts, remember old stories and songs, hunt for bush foods, and travel quietly in Country. Newer ways we learn include from artworks and museums, linguists and anthropologists, Google Earth and drones, models and tests.
In 2024, we had a country camp near linyji. We told stories. We dug into linyji to surprise the young ones. We made clays that heal headaches. In 2025, our Punmu school students talked about linyji. They have many good questions. We keep learning and doing. Our main task continues - to share what we’ve learnt with more rangers and younger generations so they can know more about their Country.
Our illustrated panel talk could be 30 minutes or 60 minutes.
Our Elders say the circles are the homes of ‘manyjurr’ or spinifex termites who build underground towns and ‘wartunyuma’ who fly from them. Some international scientists said it is plants, not termites, who cause the circles. We thought they had the wrong story. So, we worked with scientists then published a paper in a top science journal, Nature. We won an award.
Martu recognise linyji and manyjurr in grasslands to be ‘everywhere’, as common as bitumen in a city. Linyji surfaces were used by Old People to make seed cakes and spinifex glue. Linyji held drinking water and had other uses. All new to Australian science. Only recently have scientists seen that termite pavement patterns occur over almost 20% of Australia.
How did KJ Rangers and scientists learn about these things in Country? We listen to Elders and experts, remember old stories and songs, hunt for bush foods, and travel quietly in Country. Newer ways we learn include from artworks and museums, linguists and anthropologists, Google Earth and drones, models and tests.
In 2024, we had a country camp near linyji. We told stories. We dug into linyji to surprise the young ones. We made clays that heal headaches. In 2025, our Punmu school students talked about linyji. They have many good questions. We keep learning and doing. Our main task continues - to share what we’ve learnt with more rangers and younger generations so they can know more about their Country.
Our illustrated panel talk could be 30 minutes or 60 minutes.
Biography
The Martu are the traditional owners of a large part of central WA across the Gibson, Great and Little Sandy deserts. The Martu were some of the last of Australia’s Indigenous people to make contact with European Australians with many migrating from their desert lands into neighbouring stations and missions in the 1950s and 1960s. Old people have first-hand experience of traditional life and have extensive traditional ecological knowledge of their country.
