Bathurst Island and Melville Island are known as the Tiwi Islands and are located about 60 kilometres north of Darwin (at the nearest point) across the Clarence Strait.
Jilamara Arts & Crafts
Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association is an indigenous owned art centre located in Milikapiti, Melville Island, 100km north of Darwin. Artists at the centre have made a significant contribution to contemporary indigenous art in Australia since the association was established in 1989. The Tiwi word 'Jilamara', which roughly translates to ‘design’, refers to the intricate ochre patterning traditionally applied to the bodies of dancers and the surface of carved poles during the Pukamani funeral ceremony. This ceremony is still a part of community life and continues to inform the current art practice of the Tiwi people.
Jilamara Arts & Crafts Association participates in an ongoing exhibitions program at public and private galleries, while also undertaking projects across community development, capacity building and cultural maintenance. © Jilamara Arts & Crafts
Munupi Arts
Munupi Arts & Crafts Association is located along Melville Islands north-western coastline at Pirlangimpi (Garden Point) and is the most recently formed art centre on the Tiwi Islands. In 1990 the Yikikini Women’s Centre and Pirlangimpi Pottery were incorporated under the name Munupi Arts and Crafts Association giving local artists an opportunity to proudly celebrate Tiwi culture through both traditional and contemporary mediums.
Drawing inspiration from their natural lush environment and Tiwi creation stories, Munupi artists employ ochres, gouache and acrylic paint. Munupi Arts and Crafts are also highly regarded for the diversity of their range of works including painting, pottery, carving, weaving, screen prints, etchings, linocut prints, lithographs and screen printed textiles. © Munupi Arts
Tiwi Design
Tiwi Design began in a small room underneath the Catholic Presbytery on Bathurst Island in 1968. Two young men, Bede Tungatalum and Giovanni Tipungwuti worked with the art teacher from the school, Madeline Clear, to produce wood block prints. This art form was introduced because of the natural link with traditional wood carving techniques.promote, preserve and enrich Tiwi culture.
There are approximately 100 artists working with Tiwi Design to create painting, wood sculptures, textiles, ceramics, pandanus weaving and printmaking. © Tiwi Design
Ngaruwanajirri Inc.
Ngaruwanajirri is located at Wurrumiyanga‘Ngaruwanajirri’ means ‘helping one another’ in Tiwi. The art workshop has been operating in its present location at the Keeping House since August 1994. It is an historic building that features impressive murals across the ceiling, measuring ten metres by two metres in panels. The Keeping House is an airy, light-filled, inspiring space for creating art. The aim of Tiwi Design is to
The artists of Ngaruwanajirri work in a wide range of media, including natural ochres on paper and canvas; silk batiks; natural ochres on carved iron wood; linocut and monotype ink prints, as well as gouache paints on paper. © Ngaruwanajirri Inc.