Ngaruwanajirri Inc.

6 artists

23 artworks

At Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island, one beautiful building known as the 'Tiwi Sistine Chapel' or 'The Keeping Place' houses a small group of Tiwi artists who attend daily to create artwork in a peaceful environment. Ngaruwanajirri means “Helping one another”

The artists are guided towards excellence in their finished artworks and are represented in State Galleries across Australia and over the world. Renowned for their use of traditional Tiwi cultural materials such as ground-up local ochre pigments, artists also work with a variety of contemporary media including wax and dyes on silk.

Artists produce paintings in both ochres and watercolours. Ochres are worked on both canvas and high-quality archival papers, while watercolours are exclusively archival paper. The Ngaruwanajirri prints includes hand painted lino cuts and, more recently, etchings through an etching workshop run by master printer Basil Hall. All works relate to Tiwi culture and arts practices including quirky wood carvings, notably Tiwi busts and Pukumani burial poles as well a variety of birds unique to the Island.

This Centre began in 1994 with funding for the support of Tiwi with a disability and the core attendants today are disability artists. They have each developed exceptional creative skill. Sometimes referred to as free, loose, naive, or Outsider art, the work of Ngaruwanajirri artists is unique. A separate group of able-bodied Tiwi carvers work alongside this core group in a purpose-built space adjacent to the Keeping Place creating both large and small carvings.
Alikampwarni - Pelican
David Tipuamantumirri

34 cm high

$275

Landscape - two houses, bird, tree
Alfonso Puautjimi

38 x 57 cm

$870

Landscape - car, four houses
Alfonso Puautjimi

38 x 57 cm

$870

Yirrara kurrampali, motika - two houses, car
Alfonso Puautjimi

28 x 38 cm

$440

Yirrara purinjirringa, yirrara kurrampail - two trees, two houses
Alfonso Puautjimi

29 x 38 cm

$440

Yirarra Purupunguluwirri - two cars
Alfonso Puautjimi

28 x 38 cm

$440

Truck
Alfonso Puautjimi

29 x 38 cm

$440

Car and trailer
Alfonso Puautjimi

28 x 38 cm

$440

Red Truck
Alfonso Puautjimi

38 x 28.5 cm

$440

Jilamara
Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri

37 x 57 cm

$870

Jilamara
Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri

38 x 57 cm

$870

Naringari - Magpie Geese
Jane Margaret Tipuamantumirri

28 x 37 cm

$440

Alikampwarni - Pelican
David Tipuamantumirri

26 cm high

$200

Jorrijorringa - Kookaburra
Arthur Puruntatameri

24 cm high

$210

Tokwampini - Bird
Romeo Ullingura

23.5 cm high

$135

Tokwampini - Bird
Romeo Ullingura

26.5 cm high

$145

Untitled
Lorna Kantilla

100 x 70 cm

$1750

Untitled
Lorna Kantilla

112 x 60 cm (stretched)

$1750

Plane Houses Car
Alfonso Puautjimi

39 x 29 cm

$460

Truck Houses Planes
Alfonso Puautjimi

Image 28x19.5cm Paper 40x35cm

$280

Tiwi Bird
David Tipuamantumirri

17.5 cm

$160

Untitled 1
Lorna Kantilla

108 x 77 cm (stretched)

$1450

Untitled
Lorna Kantilla

108 x 77 cm (stretched)

$1450