About
About the art centre
The work produced by our artists is unique and recognisably distinct from other Aboriginal artistic communities. The paintings pay homage to the significance and use of traditional bush medicine, allowing an insight into our community. We depict the traditional knowledge of dreaming and
country through the translation of waterholes and soaks, bush medicines, mountains and sand hills.
We predominantly paint Arreth (strong bush medicine), demonstrating our deep connection to country. A veritable source of life, the land has provided and sustained Alyawarr people for generations, as every plant and animal has a vital role to play within the ecological system.
Underneath the surface of the paintings there is an underlying sense that there is more to these landscapes than meets the eye. In keeping with the religious laws, the artists reveal only a small amount of knowledge to the uninitiated. The esoteric information that is held sacred to our artists and people is concealed from the public and layered underneath the common visual narrative, masked by the delicate layered dots of the painting.
Our art centre is a place where women across all generations can gather and pass on knowledge, share stories and practice and develop our art, while men carve and make wooden artefacts. Our art centre helps keep our culture strong.
Artists exhibit regularly in ethical and reputable galleries peppered all over the country and internationally. Artists are encouraged to participate in Australia’s busy art prize calendar and annually we attend key industry events, including the National Indigenous Art Fair in Sydney, Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair and Desert Mob in Mparntwe (Alice Springs).
The Artists of Ampilatwatja is proudly an Aboriginal owned and governed corporation which supports ethical practice in the creation and sale of indigenous art.
History of Art centre
Twenty five years ago, heralding a new and fresh direction in Aboriginal painting, 20 artists from Ampilatwatja held their first sell-out exhibition. Ampilatwatja (pronounced um-blood a-watch) sits on Alyawarr land, stretching north east of Mparntwe (Alice Springs), it is here that the artists map out the lands to reveal the contents of their country.
By 2003 the art centre was incorporated and the community were producing artwork reflecting life experience and bringing culture alive.
Forging forward, we look back and acknowledge Daisy Kemarre Moss, Lilly Kemarre Morton, Colleen Ngwarraye Morton, Edie Kemarre Holmes, Michelle Pula Holmes, Lulu Pitjara Teece, founding members of the Artists of Ampilatwatja. These important artists and elders, worked alongside the women living on Utopia, who in 1987 participated in A Picture Story – eighty-eight batik works on silk and A Summer Project – representing the women’s first works on canvas. Both projects initiated by CAAMA and acquired by The Robert Holmes a Court Collection in mid 1988.
The beauty of the Artists of Ampilatwatja artwork emerges from a close association with the land, passed down through generations.
The Artists of Ampilatwatja have painted together for 25 years. ‘Our painting has no borders, just one country. Ampilatwatja is our place, Ampilatwatja is our country’. Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney
Faq
Art Centres play an important role in maintaining and strengthening cultural practices. They operate as meeting places and offer opportunities for training, education, career pathways and enterprise.
Art Centre sales play a vital economic role in remote communities, often being the only externally generated source of income. Economic independence helps ensure the agency for people to live on their homelands, continuing the preservation of traditional practices, ceremonies, language, art and spirituality.
Art Centres provide a safe and supportive environment for artists and their families, contributing to the social and physical health of the community. This often includes many social benefits from assistance with health and medical requirements, through to aged care services, family business, education, legal, transport and financial management issues.
When an individual, a business or organisation buys an original artwork, they are not buying the copyright of the artwork or any rights other than the ownership of the physical work. The purchaser of an artwork still needs the permission of the artist (or their family/trustee) if they want to do anything with the artwork other than exhibit it. This permission is granted via a licence.
For many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists art is a lifeline. It is an expression of their culture and heritage and maintains and sustains their relationship to Country, sky and waters. It is also important financially and helps to support artists and their families. In many communities, art sales are the main source of income.
Making sure you always buy ethically is not just about protecting the buyer’s investment. It’s a means of respecting the world’s oldest living culture, securing a sustainable future for Australia’s Indigenous art industry and ensuring artists are paid and treated fairly.
Indigenous Art Code encourages buyers to take an active and engaged role in ensuring the artwork they purchase comes from ethical sources and that artists are paid and treated fairly by those that trade in their work. Buyers, can and should, play a part in ensuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists get a fair go. When buying art, we urge you to buy what you love but make sure artists are treated ethically in the process.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander-owned art centres are Indigenous governed businesses, most often led by a board made up of Indigenous artists. Artwork is produced in studios operated by these art centres or artists working in their communities, in their homes and on Country and Homelands. Artwork is typically sold on consignment through a commercial gallery or directly to the consumer by the art centre. This could be via art fairs the art centres attends, or the art centres own online or physical gallery space.
Some commercial galleries and art dealers also operate studios where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists may create artwork for sale by the gallery or, in some instances, the gallery may wholesale the work to other dealers. The primary difference between the two is that the commercial gallery is almost always a privately (usually non-Indigenous) owned business, which the artist has no ownership or governance role in. Any profits made are returned to the private owners of the business. An art centre is a not-for-profit that returns benefits to its members (the Indigenous artists).