· · Papunya NT 0872, Australia ·
Murphy Roberts reading with children as part of the school's 'lap reading' program, 1986. courtesy of the Papunya Literature Production Centre Archive

Papunya is world famous for a number of things, mainly for being the place that I live in, but also for it's "dot painting" that everyone thinks of when they hear, "Australian Aboriginal art - see my Johnny Warangkula post, and videos: Papunya - Story of Dot Painting (AI), and Celebrating 50 years of the Papunya art movement | ABC News.

An exhibition at the National Library of Australia (Canberra) though has come out of the blue though and it looks awesome and about a Papunya subject I had no idea - what a wonderful surprising place Papunya continues to be.

Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre

Free exhibition is open until 31st January, 2027

Explore the decades-long, remarkable efforts of the Papunya community to record language and culture and keep it alive.

Between 1979 and 1990, the Papunya Literature Production Centre (PLPC) produced hundreds of Pintupi-Luritja bilingual books guided by the community’s Elders, among them pioneers of the Western Desert Art movement.

The illustrated books were produced as literacy tools for local schoolchildren and tell stories of first contact, Dreamings, community life, plants, animals and more. Some are funny and wildly creative. Others are moving, dramatic and extraordinary.  

‘Wangka Wakaṉutja’ is Pintupi-Luritja for ‘the story has been told’.  


Now I think I've seen some of those books hidden at the back of the school resource room, off on a fossick I go ...

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