Yuendumu - Same Jukurrpa Same Country

In 1982, nine Warlpiri artists travelled from the community of Yuendumu, in the Northern Territory’s Tanami Desert, to dance and display their painted wooden objects at the Australian Museum. The Women Artists exhibition was the first art show anywhere devoted to Aboriginal women artists, and the start of successful careers for many Yuendumu painters. Since 1982, Yuendumu artists have held well over 1000 exhibitions, achieving both commercial and critical recognition as some of Australia’s leading visual artists.Recently, the Museum returned to Yuendumu to collect from a new generation of artists. Despite their success, the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories of the powerful ancestors who created the landscape and its inhabitants continue to be the central inspiration for Yuendumu painters. What has changed is the capacity of individual artists to find their own kuruwarri (personal style), the distinctive combinations of colour and form thatmark each artist’s practice. As the seven new canvases show, Yuendumu’s artists are still finding new ways to express their traditional stories.