In Papunya, an aboriginal relief camp in the central Australian desert area near the town of Alice Springs, a teacher provided village elders with paint, tools and encouragement. And, in the process, he helped launch a unique artistic movement that has allowed the outside, Western world a glimpse of the mystical lives of Australia’s indigenous people. Suddenly, they could fix forever on board or canvas a series of previously secret, colorful, abstract symbols and designs, which once had been drawn only on skins or in sand. Collectors began to go ga-ga for the spiritual art, with curators declaring it a major innovation. To protect their religious value, the artisans dropped certain human figures, changed their color choices and even began figuring what made pieces sell to outsiders. With permission of tribal elders, a collection of classical example of these works, which tell about their creator-ancestors, the Dreaming — the making of their dazzling desert landscape and the creatures and relations among them in a dawning day — is now on display, making one of its three U.S. stops.