Warlayirti Artists

So says the first of many painted car-bonnet signs as you turn off the Great Northern Highway to travel the 350 kms along the Tanami track to the Warlayirti Artists Art and Culture Centre at Balgo, the cultural hub of Wirrimanu community. Now home to at least eight different language groups, (Kukatja, Ngardi, Djaru, Warlpiri, Walmajarri, Wangkajunga, Pintupi and Manyjilyjarra), each of which carries their own history and stories. From the early 1980s, artists have been translating stories of their desert Country and Tjukurrpa (Creation Stories/Lore) onto canvas, wood, glass and other media. Significant artists include Mathew Gill, Eubena Nampitjin, Tjumpo Tjapanangka, Helicopter Tjungurrayi, Elizabeth Nyumi, Sunfly Tjampitjin, and many others. Their works continue to highlight many public and private collections, and exhibitions. An explosion of colour, this distinctive art brings the desert Country alive in celebration of the artists’ water places and Tjukurrpa — the lifeblood of their culture and Country. Stepping along the beautiful mosaics that welcome visitors to the centre, you enter a world of creativity as the artists and their paintings honour their desert homelands and the rich ancestral realm in which they live.