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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-16 Daily Xml
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Ernabella Arts Centre

The Hon. T.T. NGO (14:45): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs. Can the minister tell the council about the upgrades to the Ernabella Arts Centre?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Deputy Premier, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:45): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in matters to do with the APY lands and Aboriginal arts. Ernabella Arts Centre, located on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, is Australia's oldest running arts centre, established in 1948. Since its inception, Ernabella Arts has been an Aboriginal-owned and run corporation, promoting and supporting Anangu and creating and selling their art. Amazingly, Anangu artists have since been represented in major collections, not just across Australia but across the world.

As I said, established in 1948 Ernabella Arts started off as a small craft room. 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 anapalayaku walka style or Ernabella design. The centre's reputation was built on its innovative artists adapting to many different mediums. In the early 1970s, a group of Ernabella artists travelled to Indonesia to learn the technique of batik, a technique Ernabella became renowned for over the decades.

In 2003, the batik studio was converted to a ceramics studio and since then artists have developed their own unique forms and styles. The artists are a varied group of old and young, men and women, always reinvigorating the centre to be a culturally strong independent contemporary art centre.

In recognising the importance of this arts centre and its community impact, in 2023 the government announced that Ernabella Arts would receive almost three-quarters of a million dollars in funding to extend and refurbish the centre. The funding was part of the state government's announcement of over $1 million for a range of projects that year in the APY lands.

Since then, the upgrades have transformed the arts centre. Some of the upgrades included storage tailored to accommodate large-format media and unique art pieces that can withstand the harsh natural environment, particularly the 40º, or even 50º-plus, summer days. Key upgrades included making the roof watertight to handle seasonal weather and designing internal joinery that is both robust and long lasting.

Storage solutions were tailored to accommodate a range of artworks, with compact laminate used for its durability. Last week, the government held country cabinet on the APY lands. In addition to many other community visits, I, along with a number of other ministers, got the opportunity to visit the Ernabella Arts Centre and see the completed extensions and refurbishments. The new sales centre, the new refurbished ceramics centre—importantly, including air conditioning out the back—and the new museum area for significant artworks over the history of the Ernabella Arts Centre are just some of the renovations that have been included.

I know those who have spent time on the APY lands recognise the important role arts centres can play in remote communities, not just being places to create art but also passing on knowledge and law while giving the opportunity for economic activity and to encounter artists. The Ernabella Arts Centre is certainly a place that I know a number of members of this chamber have visited during their time on committees like the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee.

It is certainly an arts centre I have spent many, many, hours in, particularly the men's area of the arts centre, where Ernabella artist Kunmanara Ingkatji, the old man from Davids Well who passed away nearly a decade ago, became a world-renowned artist. His work sits directly behind me in my office and has done for close on a decade.

Other artists from the men's area include Kunmanara Carroll, who passed away only four years ago and whose ceramic works became world famous and whose paintings have sat behind both Premier Marshall and Premier Malinauskas in the Premier's office. More recently, Kunmanara Jack, who passed away earlier this year, had a long history as chair of the arts centre. In my house, one of his paintings is the first thing you see as you walk in the corridor. It is an exceptionally important arts centre and has been exceptionally important to me over many years.

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