Fair Trade Certification

We are accredited members of the Fair Traders of Australia. Accreditation is a strictly assessed audit process earned by practicing the Ten Principals of Fair Trade across all aspects of the business and the supply chain. Membership is also available and can be paid for on an annual basis. There is no assessment process connected with membership. Accredited Fair Traders will display this logo. The ten principals of Fair Trade are; Environmental sustainability, No child exploitation or forced labour, Fairer prices for producers, Fairer trade practices, Capacity building, Better working conditions, Creating opportunities for disadvantaged producers, Non discrimination, gender equality and freedom of association, Transparency and accountability .

Chainstitch historic photo

This historic photo dates back to the 1890s when the chainstitch rug making tradition formed a mainstay of the Kashmiri economy, much like it still does today.

The historic cultural practice of gabba

The historic cultural practice of gabba, chainstitch, a true cottage industry is practiced in remote Kashmiri villages by rural folk, earning additional income between farming tasks The historic cultural practice of gabba, chainstitch, a true cottage industry is practiced in remote Kashmiri villages by rural folk,  earning additional income between farming tasks The historic cultural practice of gabba,chainstitch, a true cottage industry is practiced in remote Kashmiri villages by rural folk,  earning additional income between farming tasks The historic cultural practice of gabba, chainstitch, a true cottage industry is practiced in remote Kashmiri villages by rural folk,earning additional income between farming tasks The historic cultural practice of gabba.

Kashmiri gabba artisans

Kashmiri gabba artisans making some of our cushions

Kashmiri women

Kashmiri women embroidering clothing and shawls

The Sidiq brothers

Two of our old friends,  the Sidiq brothers, with our bookkeeper Olivia back in the day...when she wished she was Kashmiri

Kashmiri Olivia

Quality control before sending the finished product to us, again assisted by the wannabe Kashmiri Olivia Teaching the Kashmiris a few Aussie Rules skills

Traditional Kashmiri village house.

The home of the master artisan with hand dyed wool for our rugs hanging in the open top floor of their traditional Kashmiri village house.

Cushion village in Kashmir

The remote rug and cushion village in Kashmir.

Naqqashi artisans

Naqqashi artisans in the home of the master artisan in the Kashmir valley

Kar-e Kalamdani artisan

Kar-e Kalamdani artisan making boxes and Christmas balls by hand.

Naqqashi artisans handpainting

Naqqashi artisans handpainting some of our boxes,  this skill has been practiced for generations in the Kashmir valley

Want to know more ?

CONTACT US

Kuran Warun

Kurun is an exceptional contemporary Gundjitjamarra artist who currently lives in Queensland. His work is original and vibrant, relating to country. His colour sense is accute and adds a powerful vidual dimenion to his work. Kuran is a full time artist and sells all over Australia. Kurun is also A descendant of Truganini, the famous Tasmanian indigenous queen and relation to singer, Archie Roach.

INDIGENOUS ART CODE

The IAC is the most important body with regard to protection of Aboriginal artists rights. They have worked hard to raise awareness of "Fake Art", a sustained effort to eliminate inauthentic art and products from the market. They are punching way above their weight in this field and membership is essential to be recognised as a high level ethical operator. There is no substitute for this membership. Membership is a carefully considered privelage, not a right.

Athena Granites.

“I learnt to paint by watching my mother, and my grandmother paint.” Athena Nangala Granites was born in 1994 in Alice Springs Hospital in the Northern Territory of Australia. She has lived most of her life in Yuendumu, attending the local school and graduating from Senior Girls Upper School in 2009. She is married to Sebastian Jupurrurla Wilson and they have one son, “little Henry Peterson Wilson”. Athena enjoys being Mum to little Henry. Athena comes from a long line of artists. She is the daughter of Geraldine Napangardi Granites and the grand-daughter of Alma Nungarrayi Granites, and the great grand-daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (Deceased) one of the founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists. She paints imgery that directly relates to her family’s Jukurrpa’s and country .

Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri

Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri moved to Pirlangimpi in 2014 to live with her two sisters Simplicia and Pamela who take care of her. Jane was working as an artist on Bathurst Island at the Ngaruwanajirri Inc before she moved to Munupi Arts. She is always thinking about her paintings before she does them. Painting has is her therapy, good for her hands and her mind. She also loves music and dancing. She has a beautiful soul with a beautiful smile and always likes to make new friends. She likes her sister Simplicia to tell her cultural stories and then she makes up her own ones too.

Simplicia Tipungwuti

Simplicia Tipungwuti was born in 1979 on Bathurst Island. She went to the catholic primary school.Simplicia's mother moved to Pirlangimpi with her when she was 13 years old. and she has lived there ever since.Simplicia found her partner in Pirlangimpi and they have had 5 children.Simplicia's mother in-law Virginia Galarla paints at the Art Centre.Simplicia joined the Munupi Art Centre in 2019. She is an emerging artist who prefers working on larger canvases with her intricate and unique stye.

Nellie Nakamara Marks

Nellie depicts ‘Women’s Travelling’ stories and ‘My Country’ in her paintings. Most typically, Nellie will paint a combination of these two Dreaming’s together. Nellie represents the women travelling across the country in her paintings with traditional iconography. Concentric circles are used to represent sacred women’s sites while linear patterns emerging from these circles represent the women travelling from sacred site to sacred site. The women teach the children how to survive in the bushland of her home country by collecting bush food, medicines and where to find water soakage. These traditions are alive and well today and Nellie is extremely proud of her culture and heritage.

Carol Puruntatameri

Carol on Wurrumiyanga (Bathurst Island), moving to her fathers country Pirlangimpi, Melville Island when she was 10. 'When old man, my father’s brother Justine Puruntatameri, did painting he brought all us children and grandchildren to the Munupi Art Centre teaching us. I watched my father painting Pukumani poles and during Kuluma ceremony he was painting his body by holding the mirror. Our fathers told all us girls: “Go down and cut sticks from mangroves to use in the ceremony”. The sticks were put in a circle around the middle circle and the men go out and collect the Kulama (bush yam). We were all there, all my family, when our fathers were doing Kuluma ceremony”

Kathleen Buzzacott

Kathleen was born in Alice Springs in Central Australia and is of Pitjantjatjara, Scottish and English heritage. She moved to Queensland for some time with her brother and sister to live with her father. Kathleen's art reflects her early childhood experiences and her life in general, telling Aboriginal stories on canvas and featuring native bush creatures. Her husband Keith and their two sons still hunt emu and kangaroo, and they often go camping around her husband's traditional home of the Arrernte People, west of Alice Springs. Kathleen is also gaining recognition of her jewellery design. She started using natural seeds and more traditional forms of design, and has exhibited her work already in Sydney in 2014.

Howard Steer

Howard William Steer born in 1947 is a Broken Hill artist. He developed the foundation for what he calls "Story Art", where each painting tells its own story, be that of a backyard wedding or a Sunday afternoon pub crawl. A prime example is the "Flying Doctor" series featuring a winged, black-suited saviour complete with top hat and bag. He has a wicked sense of humour and no subject is safe from his satirical brush. Howard's style is classified as naive realism.

Patricia napurrula Multa

Patricia was born in 1973 at Papunya Clinic and grew up with her family at Kungkayunti (Browns Bore), an outstation 1.5hrs drive, south/west of Haasts Bluff. Kungkayunti her father’s country, Joe Tjakamarra Multa and her mother, Magdelena Multa Napaltjari is from Haasts Bluff. Patricia boarded at Yirara College in Alice Springs from 1986-88 and then returned to Haasts Bluff where she now lives. She worked part-time at the Haasts Bluff Kanparrka store and now spends most of her time painting and with family. Patricia first began painting in the late 90’s and has been painting for Ikuntji Artists since 2006. She first started painting her Bushfire Dreaming and Kungkayunti (Women Dancing, Brown’s Bore).

Leah Anketell

Born in Bulli NSW , Leah's paintings originate from her childhood visions and is influenced by the Australian 'outback' culture. Leah worked as a scenic film artist in the Australian films industry before painting full time. Leah uses oil paint and ink on large scale canvas and linen. Her portraits of Australian birds are exquisite.

Olivia Wilson

Olivia is junior artist of Kaurna and Narungga background. She has watched and learned from Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara artists for most of her life, learning their stories and techniques. Olivia is wearing a shirt using her own rock hole painting. She has painted a water hole, important in ancient Australia for survival of animals and people.

Paulina Puruntatameri

Paulina Puruntatameri, who is also known as Jedda, is a senior Cultural Leader and advisory to the Munipi Boards of Directors“I only started painting a few few years ago but I was already working at Munupi providing Tiwi language translations for stories connecting to our paintings. My interests are looking and preserving culture, language, art and songs. One of my passions is digital archiving and repatriation of our old artifacts that have been taken from the Tiwi Islands and one day they will returns back to their rightful place.. One day this will happen!”“It’s for our future generation to learn and respect and embrace their cultural side. Who they are and where they are from. We as the Tiwi people are the custodians of our land.

Valda Napangardi Granites

Valda Napangardi Granites is the grand-daughter of the late Paddy Japaljarri Sims (1916 – 2010) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (1932 – 2012), two founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists. Valda was born in 1974 in Alice Springs and grew up in Yuendumu, an Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs, where she still lives. She attended the local school. Valda has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1993, She paints the Jukurrpa (Dreaming) stories passed down to her by her mother and father and their parents before them for millennia. These are creation stories which closely relate to the features and animals found in her family’s traditional lands.

Akay Koo'olia

Akay Koo’oila was a Wik Mungkan Elder. Born in Aurukun in 1923, Akay was the oldest person in her community until her death in 2014. Akay started painting in June 2010, her work epitomize her own individual dynamic perspective, expressionistic and vivid representation of her Country, her husband’s Country and the outstation Ti Tree particularly their abundant varieties of bush foods and flowers. Akay exhibited nationally and travelled to Brisbane and Cairns for exhibitions and her works are held in private and public collections.

EDWARD MALATI YUNUPINGU

Malati was born to a Tiwi mother and a Yolngu father (from Yirrkala, East Arnhem Land). He began his career as an artist with a short stint at Tiwi Design on Bathurst Island. Soon after that he and his partner moved across the Aspley Strait to Melville Island and settled at Munupi Arts and Crafts in 2007. Malati quickly established himself as a talented carver of iron wood. His partner is another up and coming Munupi artist, Natalie Puantulura, who is also the grand daughter of renowned Tiwi artist Jean Baptiste.Edward. Edward’s own words: “My name is Edward Yunupingu, I have lived on the Tiwi Islands all my life. I went to school at Nguiu and then Darwin. I started carving at Nguiu as a young man, but last year (2007) I came to Pirlangimpi to paint and carve at Munupi arts and Crafts.

Nora Nyutjanka Davidson

I was born in the bush near Mantamaru (Jameson). When I was young we moved to Warburton, where we lived in the Mission, with my mother and my father. I went to school. We would go out bush with Mrs Holiday to Snake Well to have picnic lunch, every Saturday, then we would walk from Snake well to the Mission. There was a drum of water halfway if we got thirsty. I was married at Warburton to a good man, not a grog man or drinker. I lived with lots of families, two daughters, one son, they look after me. I was a school teacher at Warburton where I taught the kids. I took kids to Dampier and to Karratha (Western Australia) for school holidays. After I got married we moved to Wingellina, where I painted and used to work in the Office Staying at Wingellina a long time with the families. I worke d

Mary Napangardi Brown

x

Kerry Sandhu

Kerry Sandhu is an emerging, self-taught acrylic artist born and living all her life in Perth, Western Australia, until moving to Darwin in the Northern Territory in January 2020. Every ANZAC Day, Kerry paints an original artwork to honor the fallen service men, women and animals and their ultimate sacrifice for our freedom. LEST WE FORGET.

Nelly Nakamara Marks

Nellie depicts ‘Women’s Travelling’ stories and ‘My Country’ in her paintings. Most typically, Nellie will paint a combination of these two Dreaming’s together. Nellie represents the women travelling across the country in her paintings with traditional iconography. Concentric circles are used to represent sacred women’s sites while linear patterns emerging from these circles represent the women travelling from sacred site to sacred site. The women teach the children how to survive in the bushland of her home country by collecting bush food, medicines and where to find water soakage. These traditions are alive and well today and Nellie is extremely proud of her culture and heritage.

Julie Woods

Julie is a well-known artist with Papulankutja Artists. She was born at Irruntju (Wingellina), Western Australia, but grew up across the boarder in South Australia at Kanpi where her parents moved when she was young. When she was old enough she started school at Yirra College in Alice Springs. Julie was taught to paint by her grandmother and she inherited her grandmother’s story from Irruntju regarding a scared place associated with two sisters travelling as well as Ku Ala – a sacred women’s place south of Irruntju. Julie’s distinctive style can be attributed to artists who painted st Tjungu Palya.

Anmanari Brown

Anmanari Brown was one of the pioneers of the art movement across the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara lands, which began in 2000. Anmanri was born at Purpurna and grew up living a traditional, nomadic way of life in the bush with her family before living at Warburton, with other Aboriginal families. Anmanari mostly painted the Kungkarrakalpa Tjukurpa (Seven Sisters Dreaming), which came from her mother, whose homeland is Kuru Ala, a sacred place for women. Anmanari uses iconographic symbols in her paintings. She uses patterned lines to represent tracks in a journey, or seven small shapes or lines to represent the sisters. She also sometimes uses colour symbolically.

Bianca Gardiner-Dodd

Bianca was born in 1978 and lived her early years Sydney’s west, before moving to Tweed Heads with her family at age 10. My mother Gloria Gardiner (Chapman), is also a Contemporary Aboriginal artist of the Northern Rivers and was born in the Aboriginal community of Goodooga, North West NSW, the traditional land of Kamilaroi/ Gamilaroi people’s. Bianca has family ties to the Bundjalung lands of the Tweed and Byron coasts through her husband, a Bundjalung man, and their children. Her art reflects the coastal environment and surrounding elements. Many of the symbols within Bianca’s art represent her interpretation of coastal life, harmony and unity. Art is another platform to articulate Bianca’s creative journey. Bianca has a Bachelor of Arts in Dance and Bachelor of Education

Andrea Mimpitja Adamson

x

Stephen Jupurrula Nelson

Steven Jupurrurla Nelson was born 30 August 1978 in Alice Springs, NT. He is a lifelong resident of Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community approximately 300 kilometers northwest of Alice Springs on the Tanami road. He was raised by his late mother, Nora Nungarrayi Jurrah, and his stepfather, Frankie Jakamarra Nelson. His father John Jampijjinpa Brown. he was a resident of Papunya. Steven has two siblings from the same mother different father, his brother Greg Jupurrurla Wood who lives in Uluru he is a ranger, Roslyn Napurrurla Gibson (deceased).

Nina Puruntatameri

Nina Puruntatameri was taught to paint by her father, Romuald Puruntatameri. As a 14 year old, she would come home from school and work with him, painting his spears. Nina Puruntatameri has worked at both Nguiu Adult Education and Munupi Arts & Crafts doing bark painting, screen printing, works on linen, etchings and linocuts. In 1993 Nina Puruntatameri won the Award for New Medium at the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in Darwin, providing recognition for her exceptional skills in etching.Her father, Romuald Puruntatameri, is represented in the Museum and Art Gallery of Northern Territory Collection. Her grandfather, Paddy Teeampi Tepomitari Puruntatameri, and her aunt, Rosina Puantulura, both carvers, are represented in the Melbourne Museum Collection.The art

Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson

Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson was born in 1989 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia where her parents lived. Theo attended the local school until she was 14 years. Theo is married and has three children.Theo began painting with the Warlukurlangu Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu in 2002, when she was 13 years of age. “I would watch my Grandmother paint and listen to her stories”. Theo paints her mother’s Jukurrpa (Dreamings) and her father’s Jukurrpa, such as Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming) from her mother’s side and Pikilyi Jukuurpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) from her father’s side. These Dreamings h ave been pas

Murdie Nampijinpa MORRIS

Murdie (Maudie) Nampijinpa Morris was born in the 1930s at Rabbit Flat, a tiny settlement in the middle of the harsh Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory of Australia about 160 km from the Western Australia border and 315 km north-west of Yuendumu. Her parents would have taken her out bush in around Nyirripi area, showing her sites and teaching her the traditional ways of her country. In the early 1980s she settled in Yuendumu and worked at the Old People’s Home – a Program that cares for the elderly by helping them when they are sick, and being with them when they are alone or when they are frighten during storms. She was married but is now a widowed woman. She never had children.

Keturah Nangala Zimran

X

Paddy Stewart

Paddy Japaljarri Stewart is from Mungapunju, just south of Yuendumu. He has worked on a station, as a chef (hence his nick-name “Cookie”) at Yuendumu school teaching painting, jukurrpa (dreaming) tracking (dingo, kangaroo, goanna etc) making boomerangs and other cultural traditions. He has driven the school bus, been involved in the Council and the Night Patrol. Japaljarri is the Chairman for the Warlukurlangu Artists Committee and has painted for a long time. In 1988 Japaljarri was selected by The Power Gallery, Sydney University to travel to Paris with 5 other Warlpiri men to create a ground painting installation at the exhibition ‘Magiciens de la Terre’ at the Centre Georges Pompidou.

Judy Watson

Judy Napangardi Watson was born in 1935 at Yarungkanji, Mt Doreen Station, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family, Judy made many trips on foot to her country and lived for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu, her ancestral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts. Judy was taught painting by her elder sister, Maggie Napangardi Watson. Though a tiny woman, Judy has had ten children, three of whom she outlived.

RAMA KALTU-KALTU SAMPSON

One of our best friends, Rama Kaltu-Kaltu Sampson was born c. 1936 in Pipalyatjara, in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands, living pre contact until his teen years. He was an accomplished painter and traditional ngangkari –spiritual healer. Rama painted at Ernabella for three years before coming to Adelaide. His strong knowledge of tjukurpa (dreaming) earned him much respect and his work has been exhibited across Australia. As an Anangu elder, Rama has a great wealth of traditional knowledge and skills. Rama’s country is Kuntjanu, and he is a custodian of the Wanampi Tjukurpa – the Rainbow Serpent Dreaming. Sadly he passed away in 2020. He requested his image and images still be used and took great comfort knowing his royalties will continue to support his extensive fami ly.

Nelly Patterson

Nelly Patterson was born out in the bush in 1938.She grew up as a traditional Anangu girl near Pipalyatjara in the Anangu Pitjatjantjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands, with no whitefellas or roads. The first white men she saw were the camel workers passing through.When Nelly was a little older,the missionaries came.She remembers coming into Ernabella and seeing people wearing clothes, and she was scared. Nelly moved to Areonga, near Hermannsburg in the Northern Territory, and lived there for a long time,nearly eighteen years. She did pottery there.

DAMIEN & NYINKALYA MARKS

Damien and Nyinkalya Marks often paint together to create beautiful, vibrant collaborative works. Nyinkalya is a Pitjantjatjarawoman from Ernabella in the Anangu Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara Lands, South Australia. And is a talented batik artist as well as a painter.Damien is a Walpiri man from Haast’s Bluff, 300km north-west of Alice Springs and comes from a long line of painters. Damien and Nyinkalya have lived in many communities across Australia and have exhibited extensively.

CEDRIC VARCOE

Cedric was born in Adelaide in 1984, his family is Narangga, from Point Pearce on the mission on Yorke Peninsula in South Australia and Ngarrindjeri from the area along the southern parts of the river Murray the Coorong in southern coastal South Australia.Cedric has won multiple local awards and has been exhibiting since 1997. In 2015 Cedric received a grant from Arts SA for professional development workshops with Better World Arts. During these workshops, Cedric studied colour theory, life drawing and did a lot of research into Ngarrindjeri history and culture at the South Australian Museum.

Want to know more ?

CONTACT US
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER