Warntu Project

The Warntu Project was a collaboration between myself and the Ngaanyatjarra women of Warburton Community, 1,500km inland in the Gibson Desert of Western Australia.

I was approached by the Warburton Art Project to explore options for senior community artists to use in the telling of traditional stories previously expressed in dot painting techniques. After some research, experimentation and the development of a prototype, finally Felt was chosen as the perfect medium and the Warntu Project was born.

Over a period of several years and many journeys to the desert community to facilitate workshops, the women developed a series of striking large scale works.  These works were exhibited in the Tulyurru Gallery in Warburton Community, and the Holmes a Court Galleries in Perth.  Several of these works are held by the Holmes a Court Collection who purchased the whole group of ‘first works’ after visiting the community.

The original commissioned prototype, was a transcription of an early dot painting and is currently touring Europe in the ’Songlines Tracing the Seven Sisters’ Exhibition.