• Maruku Arts

Maruku’s origins were in South Australia and the Northern Territory in the 1980s, but artists of the western desert were quick to join the movement, which is now embraced in this region and where traditional carving has remained at its strongest. Maruku services artists in eighteen communities spread over an area the size of Victoria.For more than 30 years, the Maruku bush truck has visited the communities of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands to buy the carvings and sculptures and to provide tools, materials support. Maintaining and following a material culture thousands of years old, remains an abiding force for Yarnangu whose technique of incising carvings with burnt wire decoration is a superb adaptation to modernity. Carvings illustrate storytelling and authoritative symbols of the traditional Law. Produced with only ‘tommyhawk’, file and chisel, sandpaper and simple fencing wire, Yarnangu continue to provide for their families by crafting the same implements their ancestors designed and depended on for survival through the centuries.

Contact:
C.M.A. Ininti Store
Ayers Rock, NT 0872
T: 08 8956 2153
E: punu@maruku.com.au
www.maruku.com.au

• Minyma Kutjara Artists, Irrunytju

10kms from the tri-state border of WA, NT and SA is a small and very remote aboriginal community called Irrunytju, or Wingellina Community. The Minyma Kutjara Arts Project is a place we are creating where all the women and men, young and old, grandmothers, grandfathers, aunties, uncles, mothers, fathers and children are coming together – painting and laughing and sharing their stories. We are re-emerging as artists after our art centre was closed for several years and this is making us happy! Pukulpa!
PMB 52 Irrunytju
via Alice Springs, NT 0872
T: 08 8954 7051
E: minyma.kutjara@gmail.com
http://minymakutjara.blogspot.com.au

• Papulankutja Artists, Papulankutja



Papulankutja artists paint their country and depict some of the important stories of this region such as the Wati Kutjarra (two men), Seven Sisters, Pukara (a waterhole) and Ilurrpa (another waterhole).
Papulankutja is also a fibre and carving ‘hotspot’, with artists making extraordinary sculptures and objects out of wood, Spinifex grass, found objects and other materials. Papulankutja (Blackstone) is a small oasis where bush tucker is in good supply and Yarnangu (Aboriginal people) can retain their culture and speak Ngaanyatjarra. The community is located between the on the northern edge of the Great Victoria Desert and, at the base of the Blackstone Ranges, ensuring plentiful ground water and many trees.

Contact:
PMB 70
via Alice Springs, NT 0872
T: 08 8956 7586
E: artists.papulankutja@bigpond.com
www.papulankutja.com.au

• Kayili Artists, Patjarr


Kayili Artists is a small, dynamic art centre, serving the artists of Patjarr.  Amid the sand dunes of the Gibson Desert and adjacent to the Gibson Desert Nature Reserve, Patjarr is perhaps Australia’s most isolated community, sitting at the end of a one way, 240km road south to Warburton.  The artists of Kayili produce distinctive paintings, drawing on the potent tjukurrpa and their connections to their home country.

Contact:
PMB 47
via Alice Springs, NT 0872
T: 08 8954 9137
E: art@kayili.com.au
www.kayili.com.au

• Tjanpi Desert Weavers



Tjanpi Desert Weavers is the arts enterprise of the NPY Women’s Council, a support organisation for Aboriginal women living on remote desert communities. Tjanpi Desert Weavers began in 1995 as a series of basket-weaving workshops held in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of WA. From here weaving spread to become firmly embedded in western desert cultural and social life.Today women produce everything from a small basket that nestles in the palm of your hand to community projects that realise large sculptural pieces and take many hands and many weeks to complete. Ten years after the initial workshops were held, Tjanpi Toyota, a collaborative work made by 20 Ngaanyatjarra weavers, won Australia’s major Indigenous art prize, the Telstra NATSI Art Award. Tjanpi is a Ngaanyatjarra word meaning grass. While out collecting grass women take time to hunt, gather food, visit sacred sites and teach their children about country. At its core Tjanpi is about family and community. The Tjanpi family is a wide-reaching network of mothers, daughters, aunties, sisters and grandmothers whose shared stories, skills and experiences embody the desert weaving phenomenon.

Contact:
NPY Women’s Council
3 Wilkinson St (PO Box 8921)
Alice Springs, NT 0870
T: 08 8958 2377
E: tjanpi@npywc.org.au
www.tjanpi.com.au

• Tjarlirli Art, Tjukurla



Tjarlirli Art Centre represents the artists of Tjukurla, a small community close to the NT/WA border and was formed in 2006. The artists and artworks have strong links with the Papunya Tula movement, as families left Kintore and Kiwirrkurra to return to their homelands in the mid 1980s. The art centre is named after a rockhole of great cultural significance.As the only business venture in Tjukurla, Tjarlirli Art is providing much needed income and employment in this remote town of approximately 40 people. The art centre has a strong mandate to provide training and skills development for its members and opportunities for indigenous artists to travel and participate in Industry events of all kinds. Tjarlirli Art’s core business is the production, promotion and sale of acrylic paintings and to nurture the development artistic practice, by exploring new mediums and innovative opportunities for creative expression. Work from Tjarlirli Art is commanding the attention of discerning buyers and has been acquired by a number of major collections in Australia and abroad.

Contact:
PMB 37
via Alice Springs, NT 0872
T: 08 8956 7777
E: art@tjarlirliart.com
www.tjarlirliart.com

• Warakurna Artists, Warakurna



Warakurna is a remote community, approximately 330km west of Uluru, near the border with the Northern Territory. The township of approximately 180 people is nestled among the spectacular Rawlinson Ranges in the Gibson Desert, close to the Giles Meteorological Weather Station. Warakurna Artists opened its doors in March 2005, amid much enthusiasm and excitement. The Art Centre is fully owned and governed by Aboriginal people and provides services to artists living in and visiting Warakurna and the nearby community of Wanarn. Warakurna Artists facilitates the production, distribution and sale of the artists’ artworks. The paintings are vibrant and diverse, reflecting each artist’s unique style, stories and connection to country. The paintings are available for sale through reputable galleries and directly from Warakurna Artists website and all proceeds are returned to the artists and their organisation.

Contact:
PMB 62
via Alice Springs, NT 0872
T: 08 8955 8099
E: art@warakurnaartists.com.au
www.warakurnaartists.com.au

Western Desert Mob: thriving in the living desert