Spinifex Hill Studio: Aboriginal Art from Kariyarra Country, Pilbara
The story of Spinifex Hill Studio begins not with a building but with a request. In 2008, South Hedland-based artists Irene Coffin, Max George, and members of the Mothers Against Drugs group approached non-profit cultural organisation FORM for help facilitating workshops and professional development for the town's Aboriginal artists. They named themselves the Spinifex Hill Artists, after an old name for Port Hedland, and held their first solo exhibition, Before the Town Got Big, at Port Hedland's Courthouse Gallery in 2009. By March 2014, after five years of development, the group moved into a purpose-built permanent home in South Hedland, the Spinifex Hill Studio, made possible through FORM's partnership with BHP and the Federal Government's Regional Development Australia Fund, on land donated by the Department of Lands.
The studio stands on Kariyarra Country and is the only Aboriginal art collective in the wider Hedland area. Over 100 artists from eight language groups work here, and the absence of a single dominant style is deliberate. The studio supports an eclectic range of practices in recognition of the diversity of Indigenous experience across the Pilbara.
Among those artists is Nyangulya Katie Nalgood, whose paintings of birds carry a precise kind of attention. "Birds are the first things we see, you know, when we wake up," she has said. "Birds are like roosters to us, they wake us up in the mornings. And when the sun goes down they go to sleep and we go to sleep. You know us old people start and finish the day with the birds." Born at Liveringa Station in the Kimberley, her path took her from the Myroodah River crossing to Camballin, Derby, and eventually to Port Hedland.
In 2021 the Spinifex Hill Project Space was added, designed by Officer Woods Architects and built by Cooper and Oxley, as a place for the community and visitors to connect with the studio's work without disturbing the artists. Artists from the studio are finalists and winners of major awards including the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards, the Paddington Art Prize, Cossack Art Awards, and the Hedland Art Awards. Their work is held in permanent collections at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, and the Western Australian Museum.
Spinifex Hill Studio at a glance
- Established: Spinifex Hill Artists formed 2008. Purpose-built studio opened March 2014.
- Location: 18 Hedditch Street, South Hedland, Western Australia. On Kariyarra Country, Pilbara region.
- Language Groups: Artists from eight language groups. Hedland's only Indigenous art collective.
- Art Style: Contemporary acrylic paintings. Eclectic range of styles reflecting the diversity of Indigenous experience across the Pilbara. No single house style.
- Founding Artists: Irene Coffin, Max George, and members of the Mothers Against Drugs group, facilitated by FORM.
- Notable Artists: Nyangulya Katie Nalgood, Doreen Chapman, Nyaparu (William) Gardiner (dec.), Ann Sibosado.
- Awards: NATSIAA, Paddington Art Prize, Cossack Art Awards, Hedland Art Awards.
- Public Collections: Art Gallery of South Australia, Art Gallery of Western Australia, Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory, Western Australian Museum.
