Aboriginal Art and Culture in the Kimberley Region
If you're travelling through Broome and the Kimberley with an interest in Aboriginal art, buying directly from a community art centre is the most reliable way to ensure the artist is paid fairly. The centres listed below are all community-owned and operated.
Nagula Jarndu in Broome
Nagula Jarndu (meaning "saltwater woman" in the Yawuru language) is a not-for-profit women's art and textiles centre on Yawuru country in Rubibi (Broome). Founded in 1987 by Yawuru women as a language and culture preservation project, it has evolved into an arts and textiles business with more than 150 members governed by seven Yawuru women directors. The centre specialises in hand screen- and block-printed textiles, jewellery, and homewares. Address: 1/12 Gregory Street, Broome (corner of Pembroke Road). Open Monday to Friday 9am-4pm.
Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre in Derby
Mowanjum Art and Culture Centre, near Derby, is the creative centre for the Worrorra, Ngarinyin, and Wunambal peoples. The centre is known for its Wandjina paintings, depicting the ancestral spirit beings central to the beliefs of all three groups.
Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency in Fitzroy Crossing
Mangkaja Arts in Fitzroy Crossing represents artists from five language groups: Bunuba, Gooniyandi, and Nyikina from the river country, and Walmajarri and Wangkajunga from the desert to the south. In 1996 and 1997, Mangkaja artists painted the Ngurrara Canvases as evidence for a native title claim over approximately 800,000 hectares of the Great Sandy Desert.
Laarri Gallery in Yiyili
Laarri Gallery is situated in the Yiyili Aboriginal Community, 110km west of Halls Creek on the Margaret River floodplain, 5km off the Great Northern Highway. Established in 1999 by Yiyili Community School and Yiyili Community Aboriginal Corporation, the gallery is home to Gooniyandi artists whose work depicts country, bush tucker, bush medicine, and Dreaming stories.
Yarliyil Art Centre in Halls Creek
Yarliyil Art Centre takes its name from the Jaru word for small paperbark tree, used for shelter when people lived a traditional lifestyle. First formed in 1998 and re-opened in November 2010, the centre supports more than 100 artists from the Jaru, Gija, and Walmajarri language groups. Artists paint daily at the centre's purpose-built gallery and studio on the Great Northern Highway.
Warmun Art Centre in Turkey Creek
The Warmun Art Centre represents the Gija people of the East Kimberley. The centre is known for ochre painting using natural pigments sourced from Gija country. Gija artist Lena Nyadbi's barramundi scale designs were commissioned for the roof of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, where they can only be seen from the Eiffel Tower.
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts in Kununurra
Waringarri Aboriginal Arts, established in the early 1980s, is the first Indigenous-owned art centre in Western Australia and one of the oldest continuously operating in the country. Based in Kununurra on Miriwoong country, the centre supports more than 100 artists working in ochre painting, printmaking, wood carving, boab nut engraving, ceramics, and textiles.
Rock Art Tours
The Kimberley contains some of the oldest rock art in the world. Indigenous-guided tours operate in areas around Derby, the Gibb River Road, and Kununurra, where you can see Wandjina figures and Gwion Gwion (Bradshaw) paintings. These tours are run by Aboriginal guides from the communities whose country the art belongs to.
