Ninuku Arts

 

Ninuku Arts was founded in 2006 by a small group of Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra artists in a small mud-brick building in Kalka Community, located in the far northwest corner of South Australia. Currently, the art centre supports a rotating roster of close to forty artists and makers living in both Kalka and Pipalyatjara, which are the most remote communities of the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands.

 Artists come to work on a near daily basis and the studio is the social and cultural beating heart of both communities. It is a place not only to sit and work alongside family, but to gossip and share stories of near and distant past.

Over the course of the last decade the art centre has exhibited work nationally and internationally, becoming known for its powerful colour palettes as well as the diversity of styles, techniques, and mediums of each artist. Whilst the origins of Ninuku’s creative output lay in the traditions of Western Desert dot painting, artists have grown over time to incorporate loose brush techniques as well as tjanpi (grass) and punu (wood) sculpture into their practices. 

 

 Ninuku Artists at Kuntjanu Homelands for the Aralya Project photograph by Meg Hansen

 Pipalyatjara and Kalka are communities of the Aṉangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, common referred to as APY lands. Anangu in these the Pijtanjatjara language means "People". The APY was incorporated by the 1981 Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Land Rights Act whereby the South Australian Parliament gave Aboriginal people title to more than 103,000 square kilometres of arid land in the far northwest of South Australia. All Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra people who are traditional owners of any part of the Lands are members of Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara.

The main communities on the Lands include: Indulkana, Mimili, Kaltjiti, Pukatja, Amata, Pipalyatjara, and Watarru. There are several homelands as well, the larger ones being Kalka, Kanpi, Nyapari and Yunyarinyi.

Map of APY lands       

 

Ninuku Arts is Generously Supported by

 

Contact

For all enquiries please email

manager@ninukuarts.com.au