Kiwirrkurra Community, Western Australia

Kiwirrkura is a settlement of the Pintupi, a tribe of Aborigines in Western Australia about 150 km west of Kintore and 700 km from Alice Springs. This settlement was founded in 1983 by Aborigines, who again settle in their traditional land and wanted to prevent the exploitation of their land by mining companies. The place has become a well-known art colony since 1996.

History

On 19 October 2001, the Aborigines of the place got a Native Title, the right over their land that is now part of Tjamu Tjamu Cooperation. This right also includes the extraction of minerals and the exploitation dortiger oil reserves. The area includes the Gibson Desert, west of Lake Mackay and is 42,904 km ².

After Kiwirrkura the Pintupi Nine, who lived the last Aboriginal family without contact with the Western world until 1984, in the desert landscape around Lake Mackay as hunters and gatherers came. Three of the nine Pintupi Nine ( Warlimpirrnga, Walala and Tamlik ( named Thomas ) Tjapaltjarri ) are known as a painter and recognized, which are referred to in Australia as The Last Nomads.

In 1996 started two small groups of Aboriginal women from Kiwirrkura and Kintore, Papunya Tula Artists of the painting style to justify the dot- painting ( painting points ). Women of this place are known as artists, as Walangkura Napanangka, Doreen Reid and Yukulti Napangati.

Kiwirrkura was flooded on 6 March 2001, so that the 170 inhabitants of the village had to be evacuated to Alice Springs. They were in mortal danger, because as one of the loneliest places in Australia in case of danger Kiwirrkura can not be reached in time - the place is only about a 1200 km long dirt road from Port Hedland in the west and a 850 km long slope of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory to reach.