Anindilyakwa Arts and Cultural Centre

Anindilyakwa Art was established in 2005 by the Anindilyakwa Land Council to help local artists promote and sell their artwork. Groote Eylandt is a small island in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is an aboriginal reserve. Until the opening of the Art Centre the local artists were very limited in outlets for art sales, usually selling to the local mining community.

This website provides information about our local artists and their work. If you wish to find out more or purchase one of the featured works on the Gallery page, please contact Anindilyakwa Arts and Cultural Centre.

History

The Warnindilyakwa people were brought to Groote Eylandt on a series of song lines which created the land, rivers, animals and people and which named everything pertaining to the region. The language Anindilyakwa is spoken by the 14 clan groups that make up the two moieties on Groote Eylandt. Macassans travelling from Sulawesi were the first known foreign people to visit Groote Eylandt. For 300 years or more until 1908, seasonal fishermen came to the archipelago. They arrived in fleets of praus on the Barra wind, the north-west monsoons, and left on the Mamarika wind, the south-east trade wind. The Warnindilyakwa traded fishing rights and labour for steel knifes, axes, cloth and beads, dugout canoes, pipes, tabacco and tamarind. Macassan influences remain strong in art and language today.

Our emblem – the Stingray

Anindilyakwa Art and Cultural Centre's logo was inspired by and has been adapted from artworks by Groote Eylandt artists. The idea of two stingrays gliding beside one another, head to tail, comes from the songwords to "Stingray".