Summary

Pitjantjatjara artist Nyurpaya was one of the many skilled female artist who learnt a variety of arts and crafts whilst living at Ernabella mission in South Australia. In 1948 Ernabella Arts was established as a craft training centre for the girls and women at the mission as a means for providing ongoing employment for them. Ernabella Arts has continued for over 60 years to train artists in new techniques including the introduction of Batik in 1971, which was taught by 2 international specialists invited to the community to teach the women. The design painted by Nyurpaya is a style specific to Ernabella artists and Museums Victoria has a series of cards, bookmarks and small paintings with these vibrant designs created by a number of women working alongside Nyurpaya at Ernabella.

Physical Description

Pattern of connected curved shapes, painted with acrylic paint on cardboard. The shapes are outlined in black and are infilled with orange/brown, yellow, electric blue, and dark blue. The yellow lines are all overpainted with blue dots.

Significance

In 1937 the Presbyterian Church took over the lease of a sheep station situated in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (AYP) Lands and established the Ernabella mission. The mission continued to run sheep until the 1970s, providing employment for many of the males. During this time some of the women were involved in spinning the wool and making various woolen products for sale. In 1948 Ernabella Arts was established as an outlet for the production and sales of an increasingly diverse range of art and crafts and today is one of Australia's longest continuously running Aboriginal arts centres. The designs painted by Nyurpaya are representative of the artists from Ernabella Arts and are incorporated into paintings, cards, carvings, woven textiles, ceramics and batiks.

More Information