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A vibrant exhibition celebrating a groundbreaking literature program at a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory has proudly opened at the South Australian Museum.
The exhibition, Wangka Walytja: The life and times of the Papunya Literature Production Centre, will feature in the Museum’s world-renowned Aboriginal Cultures Gallery until 8 June.
Wangka Walytja, which is presented by ArtbackNT, celebrates the Papunya school’s rich legacy, established between 1979 and 1990.
During this fascinating period, a collective of writers, artists, literacy workers, and elders from Papunya produced hundreds of beautifully illustrated books in the local Pintupi Luritja language as part of the school’s bilingual program.
The exhibition showcases original drawings, storybooks, community newsletters, handwritten manuscripts, photographs, and audio recordings from the archive.
There are also new animations of selected books, animations called talking books, and a documentary featuring creators and their descendants reflecting on this pivotal period in history.
Papunya's first literate generation accomplished the revolutionary transposition of an oral tradition of storytelling into the medium of alphabetic literacy and representational imagery.
Hundreds of books were created in an upwelling of creativity and collective intellectual endeavour entirely comparable with their parents' contemporaneous painting movement, for which Papunya is internationally famous.
Papunya's writers and illustrators documented their community's history, culture, and everyday life for subsequent generations, often with brutal honesty, thereby producing the first Pintupi-Luritja literature.
The free exhibition is on display from today until Monday 8 June.
Visit the South Australian Museum What’s On page for more information on Wangka Walytja.
Comments Attributable to South Australian Museum Director Dr Samantha Hamilton
Wangka Walytja is a fascinating exhibition that captures a special moment in time for the people of Papunya, and for all Australians.
The innovative program at the Papunya Literature Production Centre helped the whole community record their treasured oral histories in writing, in their own language.
The items on display in the exhibition also document everyday life in wonderfully novel ways to provide a snapshot intime for a community undergoing remarkable change.
Comments attributable to artist Douglas Multa
We learnt from the old people – the artists doing the dot paintings back then – and we thought, ‘Oh we’ll do a bit different than that one. We’ll draw a picture.’ That’s how we came to put the books out.
Comments attributable to Curator/artist Charlotte Phillipus
It was really wonderful how they illustrated all those traditional cultural stories with such fantastic authenticity and creativity.
And we focused on the collecting and recording process of the stories and the transcriptions. So that was our working life.
Comments attributable to Curator/artist Dennis Kulata Nelson
We created all these books together with the old people in Papunya, many of whom have now passed on, those dear things.
We devoted a great many years to this work – more than ten years – a lifetime.
Comments attributable to Curator/artist Priscilla Brown
We really did some significant work there.
Image caption:
KULATA DENNIS NELSON
TJAKAMARRA
Mamu Malpa Mutu, (The stumpy devil), 1988
Author: Gina Nakamarra
Digital print on cotton rag
Courtesy of Papunya Literature Production Centre
