Pic – Ernabella Ladies including Carlene Thompson, Lynette Lewis and Elizabeth Dunn whose beautiful work is currently showing at the Yaama Ganu Gallery.

ERNABELLA ARTS – THE OLDEST ART CENTRE

Established in 1948, Ernabella Arts is Australia’s oldest, continuously running Indigenous Art Centre. Ernabella Arts is in Pukatja Community, 440 kilometres south-west of Alice Springs, at the eastern end of the Musgrave Ranges in the far north west of South Australia.

Pukatja was the first permanent settlement on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands (APY Lands). The Presbyterian Board of Missions established the mission in 1937, and a craft room was established in 1948. The first craft products were hand-loomed woven fabrics and hand-pulled and knotted floor rugs with a unique pattern that became known as ‘the Ernabella walka’ or anapalayaku walka (Ernabella’s design).

Ernabella Arts is a community based arts association through which artists can sell their work or come in and paint on a daily basis. Ernabella is known for its magnificent fabrics as well as printmaking on paper and paintings on canvas and beautiful ceramic work.