Purple House (Alice Springs)

Last updated

Purple House
Founded2003
Type Non-Profit Organization
FocusRemote dialysis, kidney disease
Headquarters Alice Springs, Australia
Location
MethodRemote dialysis, social support, social enterprise, aged care, NDIS
Key people
CEO Sarah Brown AM
Website

Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation, better known as Purple House is an Indigenous owned and run non profit health service based in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. It specialises in the provision of dialysis to Indigenous Australians in remote communities across the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. [1]

Contents

History

Purple House was formally established in 2003 by the Pintupi people of the Western Desert in response to a growing health and cultural crisis. A series of collaborative paintings were produced by senior Pintupi artists, many of whom were represented by Papunya Tula. The paintings raised over $1 million dollars at an auction at the Art Gallery of NSW in 2000 which funded the established of Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation. [2] Remote Indigenous Australians are up to twenty times more likely to experience end-stage kidney failure than non-Indigenous people. [3] Throughout the 1990s, increasing numbers of Aboriginal people were being forced to leave their traditional lands for end-stage renal failure. Many required dialysis which meant permanent relocation to regional centres such as Alice Springs or Darwin, away from country and family, and removing their ability to pass on important cultural knowledge to their communities. [4]

Purple House began dialysis services in a suburban house in Alice Springs, which was painted purple, inspiring its name Purple House. Its first remote dialysis clinic in Kintore opened in 2004. It now runs 18 other clinics in the NT, WA and SA [5] and two mobile dialysis units called the Purple Truck. The organisation is supported through an innovative mix of philanthropic and self-generated funds, and Northern Territory and Commonwealth Government support. [6] Three new clinics opened in 2019, including Purple House's first South Australia clinic. [7] [8] Purple House has expanded significantly to offer social, aged care and NDIS support, as well as running a social enterprise called Bush Balm, which draws in Indigenous knowledge systems around bush medicine. [9]

After years of lobbying, in 2018 it was announced that dialysis in very remote areas would be funded by Medicare. [10] [11]

Awards and recognitions

Purple House received an Indigenous Governance Award from Reconciliation Australia in 2016. [12] It was named Telstra NT Business of the Year in 2018. [13]

Purple House CEO, Sarah Brown AM was recognised with an Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday 2020 Honours List “for significant service to community health, to remote area nursing, and to the Indigenous community”. In 2017 she was Hesta Australia’s Nurse of the Year and in 2018 made the AFR BOSS magazine’s ‘True Leaders’ list. [14]

Related Research Articles

The Luritja dialect is the language of the Luritja people, an Aboriginal Australian group indigenous to parts of the Northern Territory and Western Australia. It is one of several dialects in the Western Desert language group.

Kintore is a remote settlement in the Kintore Range of the Northern Territory of Australia about 530 km (330 mi) west of Alice Springs and 40 km (25 mi) from the border with Western Australia. It is also known as Walungurru, Walangkura, and Walangura.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Papunya</span> Town in the Northern Territory, Australia

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pintupi dialect</span> Australian Aboriginal language

Pintupi is an Australian Aboriginal language. It is one of the Wati languages of the large Pama–Nyungan family. It is one of the varieties of the Western Desert Language (WDL).

Pukatja is an Aboriginal community in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands in South Australia, comprising one of the six main communities on "The Lands".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Makinti Napanangka</span> Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert region (c. 1930 – 2011)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory</span> Community in the Northern Territory, Australia

Haasts Bluff, also known as Ikuntji, is an Aboriginal Australian community in Central Australia, a region of the Northern Territory. The community is located in the MacDonnell Shire local government area, 227 kilometres (141 mi) west of Alice Springs. At the 2006 census, the community, including outstations, had a population of 207.

Tjunkiya Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. She is the sister of artist Wintjiya Napaltjarri.

Wintjiya Napaltjarri, and also known as Wintjia Napaltjarri No. 1, is 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.

Parara Napaltjarri was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Her paintings are included in the collection of the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

Eileen Napaltjarri is a Pintupi-speaking Aboriginal Australian artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Eileen Napaltjarri, also known as Anyima Napaltjarri, began painting for Papunya Tula artists' cooperative in 1996. She was named as one of Australian Art Collector magazine's 50 Most Collectible artists in 2008; her works are held by the National Gallery of Australia and 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 Linda Syddick's painting.

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.

Ngoia Pollard Napaltjarri is a Walpiri-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Ngoia Pollard married Jack Tjampitjinpa, who became an artist working with the Papunya Tula company, and they had five children.

Napaljarri or Napaltjarri is one of sixteen skin names used amongst Indigenous Australian people of Australia's Western Desert, including the Pintupi and Warlpiri. It is one of the eight female skin names. Skin names are often treated by Western cultures as equivalent to a surname; as a result the name is familiar to many as that of prominent Indigenous figures, such as artists Tjunkiya Napaltjarri, her sister Wintjiya Napaltjarri, and Linda Syddick Napaltjarri.

Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous artist from Australia's Western Desert region. Born near Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, Turkey Tolson was a major figure in the Papunya Tula art movement, and the longest-serving chairman of the company formed to represent its artists.

Patrick Tjungurrayi, also known as Patrick Olodoodi or Patrick Yala Uluturti, is a Pintupi senior law man, painter and health advocate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ningura Napurrula</span>

Ningura Napurrula was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert, whose work was internationally acclaimed. Her works included a site-specific commission for the ceiling of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, as well as appearing on an Australian postage stamp.

References

  1. ↑ "Communities". The Purple House. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation Celebrate 10 Years". Papunya Tula. Papunya Tula. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  3. ↑ "Statistics". Kidney Health Australia. Kidney Health Australia. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  4. ↑ "Our story". The Purple House. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "Our Story". Purple House. Purple House. Archived from the original on 8 July 2020. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  6. ↑ "Our story". The Purple House. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  7. ↑ Puddy, Rebecca (9 May 2018). "New remote dialysis clinics funded in Federal budget". ABC News. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  8. ↑ Martin, Patrick; Culliver, Paul (29 March 2018). "Dialysis donation to revolutionise medical treatment in South Australia's APY Lands". ABC News. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  9. ↑ "What we do". The Purple House. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
  10. ↑ Breen, Jacqueline (20 April 2018). "Aboriginal communities receive Medicare funding for dialysis in remote communities". ABC News. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  11. ↑ Davidson, Helen (30 April 2018). "Medicare change to give greater dialysis access to remote Indigenous Australians". The Guardian. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  12. ↑ Maddocks, Tom (25 November 2016). "Western Desert Dialysis helping Indigenous people in 'kidney disease capital of the world'". ABC News. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  13. ↑ Shipway, Gary (10 August 2018). "Alice Springs-based remote dialysis provider Purple House named NT's Business of the Year". NT News. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  14. ↑ "Governance". The Purple House. Retrieved 8 July 2020.
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