In January 2001 the Spinifex People were awarded Native Title over an area the size of Tasmania, in the most remote region of Western Australia. Ten paintings depicting ownership of the Spinifex country were formally included in the preamble to the final land agreement.
The Spinifex Arts Project was established in 1996 to help record and document ownership of Spinifex country. Initially focused on Native Title documentation the painting project rapidly grew as a new way to portray people’s traditional ownership of the area. Extending the success and enthusiasm of documentation painting, the community produced a series of ten large paintings as a gift to the people of Western Australia to mark the negotiations of a Spinifex land agreement. Showing these plus twenty one of the first works ever produced, Pila Nguru provides a striking account of the cultural and geographical area at the centre of the Spinifex land agreement.
Spinifex Arts Project
Tjuntjuntjara Community
PO Box 10 14 Kalgoorlie
Western Australia 6430
www.spinifex.org
