WARRUYANTA: coming together

Lawson Flats Gallery, Perth

We are happy to share our Country, show our bush medicine and bush tucker through our paintings and to share our knowledge with other tribes and kartiya (white fellas).

Veronica Lulu

Senior Artist, Singer & Lore Woman

Introducing… Warruyanta Artists

Warruyanta Art Centre is located in Mulan community, 30km southwest of Wirrimanu (Balgo).

The art centre is a place for multi-generational Walmajarri artists & their families to come together in a safe environment to connect, share knowledge & welcome visitors to their homelands.

Mulan community was established in the late 70s as people moved away from the mission back to their ancestral lands. The community is on the edge of Paruku, an ephemeral desert lake, a wetland haven for birds and other animals. The lake is the only reliable source of freshwater in the region, it has been a sacred site for Walmajarri, Jaru & Kukatja custodians for millennia.

Paruku Indigenous Protected Area (IPA) was established in 2001, one of the first of its kind. Walmajarri custodians continue to live, work & tell the stories on their Country.

Warruyanta is not a stand-alone corporation, it currently relies on Warlayirti Artists to facilitate art & cultural workshops. This exhibition is an opportunity for Walmajarri peoples to share their culture & country, and present Warruyanta Artists as an independent artistic & cultural force. 

Warruyanta: Coming Together  features paintings by four Walmajarri artists, Veronica Lulu, Karen Lulu, Anne Ovi, and Leah Nanala, depicting their deep knowledge and connection to Country around Mulan and Paruku (Lake Gregory).

The exhibition includes a major collaborative painting completed during a Return to Country camp at Walkali in 2022.