Ernabella Arts Inc. is Australia’s oldest Indigenous art centre. It has been operating continuously since 1948. For the first twenty eight years artists worked almost exclusively with wool, spinning and weaving it, and making hand-pulled floor rugs incorporating their own unique walka (designs).
From the beginning artists were introduced to high quality materials and tools, and shown how to use them effectively. All creative developments in every medium have been entirely the artists’ own choices, stimulated from time to time by workshops offered by visiting professionals.
Ernabella fine art is in all the Australian state and national collections, and in many overseas private and public collections including Edinburgh City Gallery, the British Museum and Australia House, London.
Ernabella is at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in the far north west of South Australia. The people speak Yankunytjatjara, Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjara from the Western Desert language groups of central Australia.
© Ernabella Arts