An exhibition showcasing fibre work that has become a fundamental part of Central and Western Desert culture will be on display at the Western Australian Museum in Perth from Saturday 7 November.

Pampa Mara Tjanpi: Tjanpi works by elderly women from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands  features an array of fibre artworks emerging from Tjanpi Desert Weavers, the dynamic social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara, Yankunytjatjara (NPY) Women’s Council.

Museum CEO Alec Coles said NPY Women’s Council was formed in response to the land rights struggles of the 1970s when women felt they had no voice and no visibility. They believed that as individuals they would not be heard, but as a strong and collective group they could have a formidable presence.

“Tjanpi, meaning wild harvested grass, began in 1995 as a series of basket-making workshops facilitated by NPY Women’s Council in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of WA. Women used this art form in pursuit of meaningful and culturally appropriate employment on their homelands to better provide for their families,” Mr Coles said.

Building upon a long history of using natural fibres to make objects for ceremonial and daily use, women developed coiled basketry techniques and were soon sharing their new-found skills with relatives and friends on neighbouring communities. It was not long before they began experimenting with producing sculptural forms.

“More than 400 women across three states are making spectacular contemporary fibre art from locally collected grasses and working with fibre in this way,” Mr Coles said.

At its core, Tjanpi embodies the energies and rhythms of Country, culture and community. Women regularly come together to collect grass for their fibre art, taking the time to hunt, gather food, visit significant sites, perform inma (cultural song and dance) and teach their children about Country whilst creating an ever evolving array of fibre artworks. The shared stories, skills and experiences of this wide-reaching network of mothers, daughters, aunties, sisters and grandmothers form the bloodline of the desert weaving phenomenon and have fuelled Tjanpi’s rich history of collaborative practice.

Entry to Pampa Mara Tjanpi: Tjanpi works by elderly women from the Ngaanyatjarra Lands is a free of charge exhibition which will be on display until 10 January 2016.

On 7 and 8 November, workshops will be held at the Museum by renowned Aboriginal fibre artists from Central Australia, teaching the art of making grass baskets the ‘bush’ way, swapping stories, and teaching language. For further information visit http://museum.wa.gov.au/museums/perth/tjanpi-desert-weavers-basket-making-workshop-0

 

Media contact:
Flora Perrella
Media and Communications Officer
Western Australian Museum
(08) 6552 7803