The group belonged to the Pintupi community. They lived on the western side of Lake Mackay, north of where Kiwirrkurra is today. It was made up of a single family. The father of the group had recently died, leaving two widows and seven children, most of whom were young adults. The family was moving south, hoping to find some of their relatives. They came across another family setting up an outstation, but ran away after a misunderstanding. Their relatives from Kiwirrkurra went to find them and then brought them into modern society.
Most Pintupi families had been settled in rural communities well over 20 years before. Starting from the 1930s, the Pintupi were forced to leave their homeland because of weapons tests being done at Woomera. Most were taken to Papunya, very far to the east, which is historically Luritja land. Others were moved northwest to Balgo, in Kukatja country. After this time, the Pintupi were said to have given up looking for any of their relatives living in the desert after they lost contact with the general community. They believed such people had died.
By the 1960s, there were only a few families still living as nomads in the desert. Most of them had heard about White people and places like Papunya. But they had not come into contact with them. They chose to keep living in the way they had always lived. This was a problem, because they were all closely related. Pintupi follow a strict system of kinship (called skin groupings) that says who they can marry. It makes sure they avoid inbreeding. As not many families were left in the big desert, there were almost no eligible partners for the younger men and women.
Much later, the Aboriginal Land Rights Act would be passed by the Northern Territory in 1976. Many Pintupi started to return to their land to set up permanent communities. They established the town of Kintore in 1981. Further west, Kiwirrkurra was founded in 1983 near Lake Mackay. This salt plain is the heart of the Pintupi homeland, and is where this particular family mostly lived.
The family was originally led by a man named Waku Tjungurrayi. He had four wives: Papalya, Nanu, Watjunka and another woman (whose name is not known to outsiders). These wives were all sisters belonging to the Nangala skin group. Papalya was Waku's main wife. They had three children: Topsy, Warlimpirrnga and Takariya. Waku also had another child, Piyiti, with the fourth (unnamed) sister. In the early years, this family sometimes travelled and hunted with another group. It was led by a man named Tjukurti Tjakamarra (later known as Freddy West). In 1962, West and his family decided they would go to live at Papunya. Waku did not want to leave, so they left Waku's family and went east.
About a year later, the eldest daughter, Topsy, left the group. She married a man named Tommy Tjakamarra, who had come across the family while on his way northeast to Mikantji. Topsy had nobody to marry in her own group and Tommy had the right skin name. So they left to settle at Mikantji. Around this time, Piyiti's mother died.
Waku died in about 1964. Soon after, a man named Lanti (or "Joshua") joined the group and married the three widows. He had lived at Balgo, but left there after getting into trouble with the Catholic missionaries. He came across the group while walking south across the desert. He took Waku's place as leader of the group. Nanu was his main wife. They had three children: Tamayinya, Yalti and Yukultji. Lanti also had another child, Walala, with Watjunka. Watjunka died sometime during the 1970s. When Lanti died around 1980, there were nine left in the group.
The group was made up of two women and their seven children. All were born in the desert, so their exact ages are not known.
The family lived travelling between temporary waterholes around Lake Mackay. They followed the clouds, as the presence of water dictated where they would go. They wore only small belts made out of hair. They carried wooden spears, spear-throwers and boomerangs for hunting. They also had an axe-head that Lanti had brought from Balgo. The group mostly ate lizards, witchetty grubs and bush plants. They also hunted rabbit, kangaroo, emu, goanna and snake.
The family knew of places like Papunya, Balgo and Mikantji. They knew their relatives lived there. But Lanti had always kept the group away from those places. They had also heard stories about "kartiya" (whites), but did not understand who they were. The few encounters they had with modern objects (cars, planes) were associated with the supernatural. In an interview, Warlimpirrnga remembered, "Joshua had told us about white men and motor cars. We knew there were non-Aboriginal people closing in around us. We didn't know what was happening."
To add to this, there were people who knew this family were still living in the desert. These included Topsy and Freddy West. They and their families all moved to Kiwirrkurra in 1983. Other locals would sometimes see campfires in the distance at night and footprints in the sand and knew they belonged to a group wandering the desert. The territory's welfare department were also said to have known about this particular group as early as 1962, and anthropologists working with the Pintupi during this time would often hear about these people.
The father, Lanti (or "Joshua"), died sometime around 1980. He died at Kuwarla, at the northern end of Lake Mackay. As is customary, the family moved away from the area in mourning. They travelled south, hoping to find some relatives.
The encounter that led to the group leaving the desert happened on 13 October 1984. Warlimpirrnga and Piyiti were out hunting. They were at Lake Mackay, about two days walk from where their family was camped. They saw smoke coming from a campfire to the south. It was at Winparku, a waterhole between Kiwirrkurra and Kintore. A man named Pinta Pinta and his two sons were setting up an outstation there. After dark, Warlimpirrnga came close to the group. They were clothed and sitting next to a four-wheel drive. They drew water for Warlimpirrnga from a pump.
Warlimpirrnga was scared. He was also angry, because these strangers were sitting on the land of his ancestors. They were in fact related, but didn't know each other. Warlimpirrnga knew only about his relatives from what his mothers had told him of them. They had an argument, and Pinta Pinta became frightened. Each thought the other was a featherfoot (sorcerer). When the man's son fired a shot from a rifle, Warlimpirrnga ran off. He took his family north, deep into the desert for safety. This was their first encounter with other people in 20 years.
Meanwhile, Pinta Pinta and his family drove west through the night to Kiwirrkurra. He told everyone they had seen a featherfoot man. But when he described the man to them, Freddy West said he thought it was Warlimpirrnga. The next day, the elders met and decided to find the group and bring them in. On 15 October, a team of seven Pintupi and Charlie McMahon, the community co-ordinator, went out to Winparku. Together they followed the group's tracks across the desert in two four-wheel drives. On the second night, they could see the family's campfire in the distance. The next day, McMahon had to go back. His friend, Geoff Toll, drove up to continue the search with the others. They found the family the next morning, on 18 October. They had tracked them north for to Maruwa, a waterhole near Lake Mackay.