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Our Story

In the old days, the most important Warlpiri artwork was on wood and sand. Later it was put onto the body. Now we use acrylic paint on canvas or linen, and we make artefacts and work across new contemporary mediums. The medium doesn’t matter, it’s more important that people learn their culture. The Warlpiri of Warnayaka Art live in Lajamanu in the Northern Territory of Australia.

This is the story of two Warlpiri nations: Ngalia and Warnayaka — one from the south-west and one from the north-east. Today they live in Lajamanu. Some also live in Nyirripi, and others in Willowra — the right place, the country of our ancestors — and at Mt Theo. In Lajamanu the two nations became one, and the families are joined together now, the same as when they lived in the bush.

Image: Rain over Lajamanu, © image courtesy of Michael Erglis

Lajamanu Community

Lajamanu, formerly named Hooker Creek, is a remote community in the Northern Territory located on the northern edge of the Tanami Desert, approximately 580km south-west of Katherine. Around 900 Warlpiri people live in Lajamanu, maintaining strong cultural connections to language, Country and community life.

Warnayaka Art Centre sits at the heart of the community and provides a place where artists come together to create, share knowledge and support one another.

Warnayaka Art Centre

Founded in the 1980s, Warnayaka Art Centre is a Warlpiri-owned corporation that supports artists from Lajamanu to create and share their work with audiences across Australia and internationally.

The centre is staffed by Warlpiri people from the Lajamanu community, including children of Elders whose memories reach back to the early days of contact with non-Aboriginal Australians. The studio provides a place where artists of all ages gather to paint, make artefacts, share stories and pass on knowledge between generations.

Warnayaka Art Centre regularly facilitates bush trips to Country, where artists reconnect with sacred places, share cultural knowledge and continue the stories reflected in their artworks.

Bush Tomato Dreaming - Ngayaki Jukurrpa - Painting - Judy Martin

Art

For Warlpiri people, art is closely connected to culture, language, law and Country. Through their artworks, artists share stories that reflect their relationships to land, family and community.

Culture

The most important aim expressed by artists at Warnayaka is the need to preserve and pass on cultural knowledge between generations. In doing so, the art centre also supports employment opportunities, artistic excellence and pride in Warlpiri culture.

Knowledge

This art centre is for the young people to learn their culture and law. It is important for our youth to learn the knowledge held by the Ngalia and Warnayaka peoples who are now living as one in Lajamanu.

The art centre is for the survival of culture from the grandfathers’ and grandmothers’ Country. The children are getting lost and there are not many old men left — some women but few men.

Country and Jukurrpa

Many important Dreaming (Jukurrpa) sites lie hundreds of kilometres from Lajamanu. The grandchildren and great-grandchildren who live here need to know their Jukurrpa, otherwise they will lose their inheritance to this really important Country. They need to know the Warlpiri Ngalia Law so they can go onto their great-grandfathers’ and ancestors’ land at any time, especially where these important Dreaming sites are, like Mina Mina and Kana-kurlangu.

This is why the art centre is so important to the people of Lajamanu. Here the children can see the works of the Elders showing them the Kurdiji, the Law, and everything that is tied into the Jukurrpa paintings.

Cultural Resources

For readers who would like to deepen their understanding of Warlpiri culture and Country, we have gathered a selection of resources below. These materials provide helpful context about language, history, Dreaming (Jukurrpa) and the broader cultural knowledge of Aboriginal Australia that continues to be shared through art.

Desert Patterns - Painting - Sonya Napaljarri Cooke

‘Dreamings’ and dreaming narratives: what’s the relationship?

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Friday Essay: land, kinship and ownership of ‘Dreamings’

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Clever women: three Warlpiri artists, now in Melbourne

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‘Dreamings’ and place – Aboriginal monsters and their meanings

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‘Dreamtime’ a‘The Dreaming’ – an introduction

Read More

‘The Dreaming’: who dreamed up these terms?

Read More

Latest news

Exhibition: 2 March - 11 April 2026

Women's Dreaming

A collection of works by senior artists of Warnayaka Arts, Lajamanu.

Ursula Napangardi Marks, Judy Martin Nambia, Myra Patrick Herbert, Robyn Napurrula Lawson, Agnes Napanangka Donnelly Narrngiya and Biddy Timms.

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info@aboriginalbushtraders.com

 

SHOP ART
Featured Artist

Myra Patrick Herbert

Myra Patrick Nungarrayi is one of Warnayaka’s most celebrated artists and a senior Warlpiri Lore woman. She walked across the Tanami Desert to Lajamanu with her father in the early 1960s and began painting in 1986 when a traditional painting course was introduced in the community.

Nungarrayi became renowned for her distinctive technique of extremely fine dots, applied using sharpened twigs, which gave her paintings a shimmering, ethereal quality. Today she paints with broader brushstrokes while continuing to share the Jukurrpa of her father’s Country, Yinipaka.

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Our Artists

The stories of Warlpiri people are carried through their art. Artists draw on deep cultural knowledge to create works that reflect their connection to Country, community and the enduring strength of Warlpiri culture.

Each artist develops their own distinctive style while remaining grounded in shared cultural knowledge and storytelling.

MEET OUR ARTISTS

Our Art

At the heart of Warnayaka Art is the passing of cultural knowledge between generations.

Artists express deep connections to language, family, law, ceremony and Country through paintings on canvas and linen, the making of traditional artefacts, and exploration of evolving contemporary mediums.

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Contact Us

For enquires about our artists and artworks, upcoming exhibitions, potential partnerships, or arranging a visit to Warnayaka Art, we welcome you to get in touch.

CONTACT US

Our Partners

Warnayaka Art gratefully acknowledges the support of our partners and collaborators. Their contribution helps create meaningful opportunities for Warlpiri artists and community members while enabling the sharing of Warlpiri art and culture with wider audiences.

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