ABOUT US

Ampilatwatja Community

Ampilatwatja (pronounced um-bludder-witch) is the largest of three communities under the Aherrenge Aboriginal Association. The language spoken at the community is Alyawarr and there are up to 650 residents. Access is by road via Alice Springs. The road is sealed for 100km and there is 220 km unsealed. The trip takes approximately 4 hours from Alice Springs in dry conditions, firstly on the sealed Stuart Highway & then on the dirt Sandover Highway. Four Wheel Drive is required to make the journey after rain. Heavy rain will close the road.

In the 1990’s the traditional owners of the area gained small excisions from the local pastoral lease to continue their life on their land. Ampilatwatja is the cultural heartland of the Alywarr nation. There are three outstations with the main ones being Irrultja 60km away and Atnwengerrp 40km away. With few exceptions, all the Aboriginal people living at Ampilatwatja belong to the Alywarr language group. Their country extends over some 17,000 kM2 and through the pastoral properties of Ammaroo, Murray Downs, Elkedra, Derry Downs, Utopia, Lake Nash and Urandangie. Alywarr is further divided into a number of smaller units called "countries". The Amperiatwatye people are from Aherrenge country which spans three cattle stations, Ammaroo, Derry Downs and Elkedra.

Ampilatwatja Art

The art of Ampilatwatja is strikingly different from that of other indigenous painting with a much broader colour spectrum than what is usually expected in Aboriginal art. A new arts centre is under development as well as a new managers house.

The root of Ampilatwatja art is in the country. The finely dotted landscapes depict each artist’s own particular country or place they have custodianship over. Apmer (country) and all the different bush medicines and bush tucker are also reflected within each painting. This information is mapping the country; each artist is painting her own little piece of one big map – that is why the artists themselves don’t judge a painting as good or bad. These paintings are sacred paintings – they are not frivolously done. Whether they are beautiful landscapes or dreaming lines and roundels’ there is no difference, because it’s all about country.

The beauty of the landscapes comes from a close association with the land, being on it, sitting down on it. The painters’ artistic inspiration comes from nature, and their deep understanding of the earth they walk upon. Like Cézanne painting the same mountain over and over, these artists paint their piece of country, each time revealing their love for the red earth that is their home.

All great paintings, regardless of subject matter, share a common feature. They do more than just reproduce with paint something that exists, existed, or can be imagined. They also express the painter’s special view about a subject.
The artists of Ampilatwatja share with you a unique view of what is special to them through their art, offering a view into one of the world’s oldest living cultures.