Established in 1948, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous art centre. Ernabella Arts is in Pukatja Community, at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in the far northwest of South Australia. Pukatja was the first permanent settlement on the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands).
The Presbyterian Board of Missions established Ernabella Mission in 1937, and a craft room was established in 1948. The first craft products were hand-loomed woven fabrics and hand-pulled and knotted floor rugs with a unique pattern that became known as ‘Anapalayaku walka’ – Ernabella’s design. In recent years, long after commencing working as artists, senior women decided to leave behind the walka of the early days and to depict their Tjukurpa (sacred stories of country and law). The art centre’s reputation lies in the adaptability and innovation of the artists, who have been introduced to many different mediums since the craft room began, including batik and ceramics. Today the artists are a mix of young and old, men and women, fostering the intergenerational transmission of knowledge and skills. The members of Ernabella Arts are always reinvigorating their centre, seeing it through its evolution from the first incarnation as a craft room into a culturally strong contemporary art centre.
Established in 2000, the Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists studio is the first in Australia to occupy the intersection between supported studios and Aboriginal art centres.
The art centre supports Aboriginal artists living with disability. The studio provides a means for artists to pursue and nourish their artistic practices with a national exhibition schedule, design contracts, multimedia collaborations, art fairs and art award opportunities. Artists hail from communities across the Central Desert region – from Kaḻṯukatjara / Docker River to Yurntumu / Yuendumu – yet most reside in Mparntwe. The painting process is an expression of self and a connection to country.
The Mwerre Anthurre Artists developed out of Bindi Enterprises, which was established in 1978 to provide employment and community engagement opportunities. In the 1990s the late Billy Benn Perrurle started his career painting on offcuts of timber and sheets of metal from the Bindi workshop. From these humble beginnings, the collective grew into an essential and distinctive Aboriginal art centre.
The Artists of the Barkly Collective represents over fifty Aboriginal artists living in five remote communities across the Barkly region: Mungkarta, Kulumindini (Elliott), Owairtilla (Canteen Creek), Tennant Creek and Wutunugurra (Epenarra). The Collective includes seven language groups; Alyawarr, Kaytetye, Mudburra, Jingili, Waramungu, Warlpiri and Warlmanpa.
The Artists of the Barkly employ contemporary mediums to celebrate and preserve ancient cultures and languages. The vast breadth of variety in work made across the Collective reflects its cultural diversity, whilst shared elements of visual language illustrate the role of art centres in multi-generational knowledge-sharing.
The Collective is facilitated by Barkly Regional Arts, a not-for-profit multi-disciplinary art centre based on Waramungu Country. Barkly Regional Arts collaborates with remote Indigenous communities to foster access, development, and recognition of arts in the Barkly.
The Artists of Ampilatwatja art centre was established in 1999. Ampilatwatja is 325 km north-east of Mparntwe / Alice Springs. The work produced by the artists is recognisably distinct from other Aboriginal artistic communities, due to the application of fine dots and the figurative depiction of the landscape and its flora. Most of the artists paint arreth (native fuschia), and other bush medicine plants, demonstrating a deep connection to country. This country has provided for and sustained Alyawarr people for generations, and the paintings pay homage to the significance and use of traditional bush medicine, allowing an insight into their community. In keeping with the cultural laws, the artists reveal only a small amount of knowledge. The esoteric information that is held sacred to these artists and their people is layered underneath the common visual narrative, masked by the delicately layered dots of the painting. Their vibrant palette and depiction of plants, geography and light comes from the artists’ intimate and close association with their homelands.
Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre studio and gallery sits on Kaytetye Country in Alekarenge / Ali Curung, about 400 km north of Mparntwe / Alice Springs. We are a 100% Aboriginal owned not-for-profit, comprised of artists from the Kaytetye, Alyawarr, Warlpiri and Warumungu nations.
The name Arlpwe (pronounced ahl-boa) was chosen for the art centre by Traditional Owners at its establishment in 2008. Arlpwe is a Kaytetye name for the country north of Alekarenge. The name also relates to the Kaytetye word arlpware meaning ‘hanging’ or ‘hang something up’, and the Alyawarr words alpwart, meaning ‘uncovered’ or ‘uncover something exposed’, and arlpaw, meaning ‘wide, open waterless country’.
Arlpwe artists specialise in painting, taking inspiration from the landscape, time spent on country, native flora and fauna, and the Dreaming – Altyerre (Kaytetye), Altyerr (Alyawarr), Jukurrpa (Warlpiri), Wirnkarra (Warumungu).
The landscape surrounding Alekarenge is very important for Arlpwe artists. Local bush foods, bush medicines, water and animals are often the subject of their paintings. Artists are taught about the bush by the elders and their extended families and know plants by their traditional names, in our four languages. Alekarenge, means ‘belonging to the dog’, referring to the dog Dreaming site where the community is located.
Arlpwe Art and Culture Centre is 22 km east of the Stuart Highway, between Mparntwe and Tennant Creek.
