Australian Indigenous art movements and cooperatives have been central to the emergence of Indigenous Australian art. Whereas many western artists pursue formal training and work as individuals, most contemporary Indigenous art is created in community groups and art centres. [1]
Indigenous art centres put high value on social inclusion; they support major artists and foster emerging ones; they encourage participation and professional development of young people as artists or related workers, to provide employment and income. They focus on community rather than the art market: family connection, along with activities that celebrate Aboriginal and help to protect culture. [2]
The cooperatives or art centres listed below reflect the diversity of art across Indigenous Australia, where art, particularly for remote communities, is a significant source of income and livelihood.
The following organisations represent, or include, a number of Indigenous art cooperatives:
The Aboriginal Art Association of Australia (AAAA), which advocates for all industry participants, including artists, galleries, and dealers, whether independent or affiliated to an art centre, was founded in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in November 1998 and incorporated in January 1999, with over 60 financial member organisations during its first year. The Association continues to lobby and inform governments on behalf of its members on a range of matters, including the future direction and development of the arts (particularly Indigenous); codes of conduct, and resale royalties. [3]
Art curator and dealer Adam Knight was formerly the vice president of the AAAA. [4] He took over as president of the organisation in 2018. [5]
The Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists, Aboriginal Corporation (ANKA) is the peak body for Aboriginal artists and Aboriginal-owned community art centres across around a million square kilometres in the Top End of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It is a not-for-profit Aboriginal Corporation. [6]
The organisation was founded as the Association of Northern, Central and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANCAAA) in 1987, which covered art centres in Northern and Central Australia; however in 1992 a separate association for the central regions was created, known as Desart, while ANCAAA continued to support artists in Northern Australia. In 1995, renamed Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA), the requirement for all Indigenous governance was formalised at a board meeting, with a new all-Indigenous board elected from the four regions: Arnhem Land, the Kimberley, Darwin/Katherine, and the Tiwi Islands. [6]
In 2000 the association undertook a strategic planning process and the new name (ANKA) was adopted. As of 2020 [update] ANKA represents nearly 50 Aboriginal-owned remote community art centres, and more than 5000 artists. [6]
The head office of ANKA is in Darwin. [7]
Desart was founded in 1992 as a split from ANCAAA, to focus on Central Desert artists, [6] and incorporated in 1993. [8] In 2016, it represented over 8000 artists. [2] In 2021, it had 37 independent Central Australian Aboriginal art centres, representing over 11,000 artists, located in the southern part of the Northern Territory, the APY Lands of South Australia, and Ngaanyatjarra country in Western Australia. Desart is governed by an all-Aboriginal committee elected by the members. [8] As of January 2024 [update] it has 30 member centres. [9] In 2022, Desart took on management responsibilities, being fully Aboriginal-owned for the first time in that year. [10]
The functions of Desart include advocacy for the art centres, and delivering "programs that build strong business practice, improve infrastructure, support governance, and promote Aboriginal art and culture". [8]
Desart also runs "Desert Mob", an annual event occurring each September or October that includes an exhibition in Araluen Arts Centre in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), [10] the Desert Mob Symposium, a marketplace, demonstrations, and other events such as workshops and visits to studios and art centres. [11] The 32nd edition of Desert Mob in 2023 included artwork from 35 art centres, [12] curated by Hetti Kemarr Perkins and Aspen Nampin Beattie. [10] There were also short films from Tjanpi Desert Weavers, and fashion shows. [12]
There is a wide range of art centres. They are all Indigenous-owned and/or controlled and are all not-for-profit organisations or, in a few cases, companies owned by the artists (Papunya Tula; Jirrawun Arts). The oldest is Ernabella Arts, formed in 1948. The largest by sales in 2006 were Papunya Tula and Warlayirti. [13]
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Indigenous Australian art includes art made by Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders, including collaborations with others. It includes works in a wide range of media including painting on leaves, bark painting, wood carving, rock carving, watercolour painting, sculpting, ceremonial clothing and sandpainting; art by Indigenous Australians that pre-dates European colonisation by thousands of years, up to the present day.
The Araluen Cultural Precinct, formerly the Araluen Centre for Arts & Entertainment, in Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory of Australia, is a cultural precinct which includes the Araluen Arts Centre, the Museum of Central Australia, Central Australian Aviation Museum, Kookaburra Memorial, the Yeperenye Sculpture, Central Craft, Yaye's Cafe and Aboriginal sacred sites.
Papunya is a small Indigenous Australian community roughly 240 kilometres (150 mi) northwest of Alice Springs (Mparntwe) in the Northern Territory, Australia. It is known as an important centre for Contemporary Indigenous Australian art, in particular the style created by the Papunya Tula artists in the 1970s, referred to colloquially as dot painting. Its population in 2016 was 404.
Yuendumu is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia, 293 km (182 mi) northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami Road, within the Central Desert Region local government area. It ranks as one of the larger remote communities in central Australia, and has a thriving community of Aboriginal artists. It is home to Pintubi Anmatjere Warlpiri (PAW) Media, which produced the TV series Bush Mechanics.
Makinti Napanangka was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She was referred to posthumously as Kumentje. The term Kumentje was used instead of her personal name as it is customary among many indigenous communities not to refer to deceased people by their original given names for some time after their deaths. She lived in the communities of Haasts Bluff, Papunya, and later at Kintore, about 50 kilometres (31 mi) north-east of the Lake MacDonald region where she was born, on the border of the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
Tjunkiya Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Wintjiya Napaltjarri.
Wintjiya Napaltjarri, also known as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1, was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Tjunkiya Napaltjarri; both were wives of Toba Tjakamarra, with whom Wintjiya had five children.
Takariya Napaltjarri is an Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She has painted with Papunya Tula artists' cooperative. First exhibited in 1996, her work is held in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Linda Yunkata Syddick Napaltjarri is a Pintupi- and Pitjantjatjara- speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her father was killed when she was young; her mother later married Shorty Lungkarta Tjungarrayi, an artist whose work was a significant influence on Syddick's painting.
Kitty Pultara Napaljarri is an Anmatyerre-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born at Napperby Station east of Yuendumu, Northern Territory, she worked on the station and first learned to paint there around 1986. Her work is held in the collections of the Art Gallery of South Australia and South Australian Museum.
Sheila Brown Napaljarri was a Warlpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. A contributor to major collaborative paintings by Indigenous communities, her works are also held by the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the South Australian Museum.
Topsy Gibson Napaltjarri, also known as Tjayika or Tjanika, is a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region.
Nora Andy Napaltjarri is a Warlpiri- and Luritja-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Like her mother Entalura Nangala, Nora has painted for Indigenous artists' cooperative Papunya Tula. Her work has been exhibited at the Gauguin Museum in Tahiti, and is held by Artbank.
Ada Andy Napaltjarri is a Warlpiri– and Luritja–speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Ada was born near Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, and has lived in several Northern Territory communities. She began painting in the early 1980s at Alice Springs and probably played a role in the development of interest in painting in the communities in which she has lived.
Molly Jugadai Napaltjarri (c.1954–2011) was a Pintupi- and Luritja-speaking Aboriginal artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are held in major collections, including the National Gallery of Australia.
Contemporary Indigenous Australian art is the modern art work produced by Indigenous Australians, that is, Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people. It is generally regarded as beginning in 1971 with a painting movement that started at Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, Northern Territory, involving Aboriginal artists such as Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, and facilitated by white Australian teacher and art worker Geoffrey Bardon. The movement spawned widespread interest across rural and remote Aboriginal Australia in creating art, while contemporary Indigenous art of a different nature also emerged in urban centres; together they have become central to Australian art. Indigenous art centres have fostered the emergence of the contemporary art movement, and as of 2010 were estimated to represent over 5000 artists, mostly in Australia's north and west.
Hetti Kemerre Perkins is an Aboriginal Australian art curator and writer. She is known for her work at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, where she was the senior curator of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art at the gallery from around 1998 until 2011, and for many significant exhibitions and projects.
Bindi Mwerre Anthurre Artists, or Mwerre Anthurre, is an Aboriginal art centre based in Alice Springs (Mparntwe). It was established in 2000 to encourage, nurture and support Aboriginal artists with disabilities and the organisation focuses on empowerment through art.
Desert Mob is Central Australia's largest First Nations art and cultural event and exhibition, held in Alice Springs/Mparntwe annually since 1991.