In the past two years since its incorporation in 2006, Tjungu Palya has grown to be a dynamic and innovative community art centre.
Located about 100kms south of Uluru (Ayres Rock), Nyapari is set at the base of the majestic Mann Ranges in the heart of country traditionally owned by the Pitjantjatjara people.
Tjungu Palya is an Aboriginal owned and governed art enterprise, where 70% of sales income is returned to the artist and the remaining 30% reinvested in their art centre business.
The art centre plays a vital economic role in the future sustainability of these small communities.
Itโs financial strength enables the artists to support community development through projects such as the โThunderboysโ a local band of five young men all under 20, an aged care and lunch program, governance training and cultural maintenance.
The motivation for building up the business of the art centre is to increase the capacity for Anangu to positively take control of their lives.
The art centre also provides a framework for supporting the intergenerational transfer of knowledge.
The artists have a deep connection to country, which is expressed with integrity, beauty and a bold creativity in the canvas paintings as traditional stories of the Ancestors journeys are retold.
Each painting depicts a fragment of a larger story, a living history where an ancestor was involved in creating country.
These spirit men and women from the Tjukurpa are still living in this desert landscape and have an ongoing relationship with the desert people.
Individuals have authority and ownership of this land and the associated sites and stories, and continue to care and manage the land as their ancestors have done.
These links, both spiritual and physical, to the desert are integral to the well being of Anangu.
The senior artists paint continuously and believe that the transfer of traditional knowledge to the young is of upmost importance.
It is not uncommon for four generations of one family to be gathered at the art centre, painting, singing and retelling the Tjukurpa.
It is a hive of activity, of fun, of culture and creativity.
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