Papunya (

Pintupi-Luritja 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). Pintupi is a variety of the Western Desert Language spoken b ...

: ''Warumpi'') is a small

Indigenous Australian Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

community roughly northwest of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

(Mparntwe) in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

, Australia. It is known as an important centre for

Contemporary Indigenous Australian art 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 star ...

, in particular the style created by the

Papunya Tula Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovativ ...

artists in the 1970s, referred to colloquially as

dot painting Papunya Tula, registered as Papunya Tula Artists Pty Ltd, is an artist cooperative formed in 1972 in Papunya, Northern Territory, owned and operated by Aboriginal people from the Western Desert of Australia. The group is known for its innovative ...

. Its population in 2016 was 404.

History

Pintupi The Pintupi are an Australian Aboriginal group who are part of the Western Desert cultural group and whose traditional land is in the area west of Lake Macdonald and Lake Mackay in Western Australia. These people moved (or were moved) into th ...

and

Luritja The Luritja or Loritja people, also known as Kukatja or Kukatja-Luritja, are an Aboriginal Australian people of the Northern Territory. Their traditional lands are immediately west of the Derwent River, that forms a frontier with the Arrernte p ...

people were forced off their traditional country in the 1930s and moved into

Hermannsburg Hermannsburg is a village and a former municipality in the Celle (district), Celle district, in Lower Saxony, Germany. Since 1 January 2015 it is part of the municipality Südheide (municipality), Südheide. It has been a state-recognised resort t ...

(Ntaria) and

Haasts Bluff 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, west of Alice Springs. At the 2006 ce ...

, where there were government ration depots. There were often tragic confrontations between these people, with their nomadic hunter-gathering lifestyle, and the cattlemen who were moving into the country and over-using the limited water supplies of the region for their cattle. The

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

built a water bore and some basic housing at Papunya in the 1950s to provide room for the increasing populations of people in the already-established Aboriginal communities and reserves. The community grew to over a thousand people in the early 1970s and was plagued by poor living conditions, health problems, and tensions between various tribal and linguistic groups. These festering problems led many people, especially the

, to move further west closer to their traditional country. After settling in a series of outstations, with little or no support from the government, the new community of Kintore was established about west of Papunya in the early 1980s. The term "

Finke River Mission Hermannsburg, also known as Ntaria, is an Aboriginal community in Ljirapinta Ward of the MacDonnell Shire in the Northern Territory of Australia, ; west southwest of Alice Springs, on the Finke River, in the traditional lands of the Western ...

" was initially an alternative name for the

mission Mission (from Latin 'the act of sending out'), Missions or The Mission may refer to: Geography Australia *Mission River (Queensland) Canada *Mission, British Columbia, a district municipality * Mission, Calgary, Alberta, a neighbourhood * ...

, but this name was later often used to include the settlements at

, Areyonga and, later, Papunya. It now refers to all Lutheran missionary activity in

Central Australia Central Australia, also sometimes referred to as the Red Centre, is an inexactly defined region associated with the geographic centre of Australia. In its narrowest sense it describes a region that is limited to the town of Alice Springs and ...

since the first mission was established at Hermannsburg in 1877.

Description and demographics

It is now home to a number of displaced Aboriginal people, mainly from the

and

groups. At the

2016 Australian census The 2016 Australian census was the 17th Census in Australia, national population census held in Australia. The census was officially conducted with effect on Tuesday, 9 August 2016. The total population of the Commonwealth of Australia was count ...

, Papunya had a population of 404. The predominant religion at Papunya is

Lutheranism Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

, with 310 members, or 78.7% of the population, based on the 2016 census. It is the closest town to the Australian

continental pole of inaccessibility In geography, a pole of inaccessibility is the farthest (or most difficult to reach) location in a given landmass, sea, or other topographical feature, starting from a given boundary, relative to a given criterion. A geographical criterion of i ...

. Papunya is on restricted Aboriginal land and requires a permit to enter or travel through.

Warumpi Band Warumpi Band () were an Australian country and Aboriginal rock group which formed in the outback settlement of Papunya, Northern Territory, in 1980. The original line-up was George Burarrwanga on vocals and didgeridoo, Gordon Butcher Tjapana ...

were an Australian country and Aboriginal rock group which formed in Papunya.

Art

Papunya Tula

During the 1970s a striking new art style emerged in Papunya, which by the 1980s began to attract national and then international attention as a significant Indigenous art movement, colloquially known as

. Leading exponents of the style, who belonged to the

art cooperative founded in Papunya in 1972, included

Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO (1932 – 21 June 2002) was an Australian painter, considered to be one of the most collected and renowned Australian Aboriginal artists. His paintings are held in galleries and collections in Australia and ...

Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri __NOTOC__ Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri ( – 5 September 2015) was an Anmatyerr Australian artist. Biography He was born at Ilpitirri near Mount Denison, was one of Australia's best-known artists of the Western Desert Art Movement, Papunya T ...

Kaapa Tjampitjinpa Kaapa Mbitjana Tjampitjinpa ( 1920 – 1989) was a contemporary Indigenous Australian artist of Anmatyerre, Warlpiri and Arrernte heritage. One of the earliest and most significant artists at Papunya in Australia's Northern Territory in the ea ...

, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, and

Pansy Napangardi Pansy Napangardi (born 1948) is an Australian artist. She is associated with the Jukurrpa group of women artists in Alice Springs where she lives today. Early life She was born at Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory, Australia. She remains one of ...

. The company now operates out of Alice Springs, and covers an enormous area, extending into

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, west of Alice Springs.

Papunya Tjupi Arts

Papunya Tjupi Arts, a community-based, 100% Aboriginal-owned arts organisation, commenced in 2007, and hosts around 150 artists, many of whose works are featured in exhibitions and galleries around the world. In 2009,

Michael Nelson Tjakamarra Kumantje Jagamara (1946 – November 2020), also known as Kumantje Nelson Jagamara, Michael Minjina Nelson Tjakamarra, Michael Nelson Tjakamarra and variations (Kumantye, Jagamarra, Jakamara), was an Aboriginal Australian painter. He was one of ...

(Kumantje Jagamara) became the artist leader at the arts centre. Artists include

Doris Bush Nungarrayi Doris Bush Nungarrayi is an Australian Aboriginal artist (born c. 1942, in Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory) who won the 2023 Sir John Sulman Prize. She is a painter at the Aboriginal-owned Papunya Tjupi art centre in Papunya, an Indigenous Aust ...

, Maureen Poulson, Charlotte Phillipus Napurrula, Tilau Nangala, Mona Nangala, Nellie Nangala, Carbiene McDonald Tjangala, Martha McDonald Napaltjarri, Candy Nelson Nakamarra, Dennis Nelson Tjakamarra, Narlie Nelson Nakamarra, Isobel Major Nampatjimpa, Isobel Gorey, Mary Roberts, Beyula Putungka Napanangka, Watson Corby among others.

Notes

External links

Papunya Painting: Out of the Desert
An online exhibition of Papunya artworks held by the

National Museum of Australia The National Museum of Australia (NMA), in the national capital Canberra, preserves and interprets Australia's social history, exploring the key issues, people and events that have shaped the nation. It was formally established by the ''Nation ...

. The website includes the works, biographies of the artists, installation images and a bibliography. {{authority control Towns in the Northern Territory Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory MacDonnell Region