Spinifex Arts Project

Paintings of country are generally understood as expressions of identity, encoded in swathes of dots or organic linear gestures. The large-scale collaborative men’s and women’s canvases by Spinifex artists act as monumental group portraits stitched into the relational narrative of homelands. Here, the artists make a double display of identity, introducing their pristine desert garden with proud grace.

Emerging from the legal processes of native title research in the 1990s, the first Spinifex paintings were conceived as a form of evidence. They were proof of each person’s identification with specific places – I was born here – and they were proof of how those people and places interconnected to form Spinifex country. The most powerful Spinifex paintings have therefore been collaborations – giant canvases in which each artist weaves their personality and history into a shared identity as one people. The first two such paintings grace the opening pages of the native title agreement between the State Government of Western Australia and the Spinifex people. In this legal context such paintings assert the primacy, equality and endurance of Spinifex law, of who Spinifex people have always been. The paintings that have followed have made different claims, in the public theatre of art galleries and museums, about who Spinifex people continue to be.

Some of the Spinifex paintings are collaborations: the men work together and the women work together to record a shared story of their connection to country. Each artist has their own style and contributes their individual history to the collective canvas. A way of painting that began as an expression of identity and place.

Text by John Carty from 2015 Tarnanthi Catalogue.

They are maps not simply of land, but of who Spinifex people understand themselves to be: in relation to the land and in relation to each other.
John Carty

Veronica Brown, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 1981, Lorraine Davies, Ngaanyatjarra people, Western Australia, born Pukurnkurn, Western Australia 1951, Kathleen (Kanta) Donnegan, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Kapi Piti Kutjara, Western Australia 1944, died Tjuntjuntjara, Western Australia 2022, Estelle Hogan, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Palatatjara, Western Australia 10 July 1937, died Tjuntjuntjara, Western Australia 2017, Betty Kennedy, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Great Victoria Desert, Western Australia 1954, died Western Australia 2019, Lois Pennington, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Great Victoria Desert, Western Australia 1957, died Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 2022, Myrtle Pennington, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Kanpa, Western Australia 1 July 1939, died Kalgoorlie, Western Australia 2022, Ngalpingka Simms, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Wayiyul, Western Australia 1945, Yarangka Thomas, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Ngalkuritjara, Western Australia 1939, died Tjuntjuntjara, Western Australia 2015, Tjaruwa Woods, Pitjantjatjara people, Western Australia, born Warutjara, Western Australia 1954, died Western Australia 2019, Kuru Ala, 2015, Ilkurlka, Great Victoria Desert, Western Australia, synthetic polymer paint on linen, 198.0 x 290.0 cm; Gift of Barbara Fargher, Roger J Lang, Lipman Karas, Mark Livesey QC, Joan Lyons, Diana McLaurin, Robert Pontifex and Henry Rischbieth through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation Collectors Club 2015, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, © the artists/Copyright Agency.

  • The Spinifex paintings include collaborations, yet each artist tells their own story within the whole. Can you see the different styles of the individual artists? How do the different voices within the collaborative painting contribute to an understanding of the work?
  • Compare the representation of Country in this work with other paintings about Country in AGSA's collection.
  • Find out about the Native Title claim for Spinifex country.
  • Research the geography and plant life of the Great Victoria Desert. Make a work of art to demonstrate your understanding of this place.