Kayili Artists is the arts enterprise of the tiny community of Patjarr in the Ngaanyatjarra Lands of western central Australia. We are located at the edge of the vast Gibson Desert Nature Reserve near the Clutterbuck hills, 240 kms north of Warburton, and only reachable by dirt road. Our community is surrounded by a beautiful area of red sandhills, hardy Triodia grass, evergreen mulgas with yellow coneflowers, and other drought-resistant shrubs. Rainfall is rare, but when it rains the iron-rich soil produces an explosion of colours as small plants flower abundantly. 

Kayili Artists began operations in September 2004 and we have since enjoyed an enthusiastic and positive response from the market. Our acrylic paintings are known for their vibrant colours, raw and uncontrived shapes, and highly traditional origins, linking every work to our Tjukurrpa (law and culture).

The opening of the art centre has been an episode in the journey of Ngaanyatjarra people to continue connections with the past, and to keep culture strong for future generations. In the 1970s the people living in the Gibson Desert were taken away from their land to make place for the government’s rocket testing. For many of them it was the first time to see non-Aborigines. They were taken into Warburton Mission, but the loss of cultural and environmental ties prompted a group of Ngaanyatjarra people in 1979 to start a ‘cutline’ (vehicle track) to their traditional water sources. Slowly more people moved back to their home country. In 1993 Patjarr and the surrounding area were officially given back to the people.

The people of Patjarr love hunting for bush food, such as goannas, bush turkeys, witchety grubs and honey ants. The art coordinator regularly takes artists and their families on bush trips, to enable them to maintain ancestral connections, to hunt and to walk their country. The paintings reflect the beauty and energy artists experience while being in their land.