The Ngaanyatjarra Lands, Western Australia

The Ngaanyatjarra Lands are in the far east of Western Australia, adjoining the Northern Territory and South Australia borders.  

This area spans nearly 160,000 sq/kms with a population of over 2,000 people.  There are 11 communities and outstation settlements in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands. 

The first permanent settlement in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands was the Warburton Mission, established in 1934.  In the years since then, mining, weapons testing, the homelands movement (where new communities and outstations were built on country specific to different families and groups) and enormous political changes have changed the Ngaanyatjarra Lands.

Ngaanyatjarra is the name of both the language and the collective identity of Aboriginal people from this area.  The Ngaanyatjarra language is related to other desert languages such as Pitjantjatjara, Pintubi and Martu.

The communities in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands range in size from around 60 people to over 300.  Each community has a school, store, clinic and a range of municipal and cultural services. 

The landscape of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands is extremely diverse; the western desert regions’ physical richness is reflected in the astonishing variety of artistic expression.  The Ngaanyatjarra Lands are at the junction of the Great Victoria and Gibson deserts. 

There is dense sand dune country, ancient mountain ranges and seemingly infinite Spinifex plains.  Among this overwhelming scale of the landscape are the rockholes, soakwaters (underground water), creeks, salt lakes and claypans that feature in many of the artworks as sites of significance.