Papunya

Papunya is a small settlement with approximately 300 inhabitants, the Aborigines 240 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory in Australia. Papunya is known for its world-renowned Aboriginal artist colony. In this place the aboriginal tribes of the Pintupi and Luritja live. Papunya and the land belonging to them Aborigine, and for a drive through a permit is required.

Development of the settlement

The Pintupi and the Luritja -people were deported in the 1930s to Hermannsburg and after Haasts Bluff, there were confrontations with their lifestyle as nomads and cattle breeders who invaded the country and claimed the water holes for themselves and their livestock.

In the 1950s, the Australian government drilled water holes and built houses for the Aboriginal community and the community grew to more than 1,000 people until the early 1970s on. The standard of living was low, there were health problems and conflicts between the different speaking and shaped by historical experience groups. The Pintupi migrated in the early 1980s from west lying in her traditional country. They established without government assistance 250 kilometers from the Papunya settlement Kintore. 86.3 percent of the residents are Papunyas Lutheran faith. This is one of the highest rates of all Australian cities.

Artist colony

In the settlement of Papunya evolved since the 1970s, an artists' colony, which connects the historic Aboriginal art with modern art and ranks among one of the most important artistic movements of the Aborigines. Papunya was established at a place of honey ants, an ancestor being the Pintupi.

In 1971, the art teacher Geoffrey Bardon, that the walls of the school building were decorated with traditional motifs. Old Tom Onion Tjapangati, the owner of the Honey Ant Dreamings, leave the honey pot ants mural was to customize. However, this mural was removed after Bardon had left school due to a school cleanliness Regulation 1972. Other Aborigines were now encouraged and painted. Bardon got new materials such as synthetic colors and boards. It was founded and Papunya Tula Artist Cooperative. The new possibilities offered extensive color compositions and forms of design, but the painting was limited to around 1980 in the traditional representations in their ways. After another three years, the size of the images increased to boards and then works were painted on canvas. The artists used naturalistic representations such as shield, spear, ax and symbols that were sacred to them. Lines that have been used, sparked the painter Johnny Warangkula Jupurrula with at first. He perfected the dot painting and created iconographic elements that dissolve in the image. This was the breakthrough and the artists Papunyas with her dot painting ( points - painting) as a style of painting gained national and international recognition.