Latest news with #Pitjantjatjara
Time Out
15 hours ago
- Time Out
Australia is home to one of the largest deserts on Earth – and it's bigger than the entire United Kingdom
What if we told you there's a desert in Australia bigger than Victoria and Tasmania combined? You're probably racking your brains right now, wondering where we're hiding our own version of the Sahara or the Gobi. Well, point your binoculars inland and you're bound to come across the Great Victoria Desert. Despite its name, this vast expanse of arid land is nowhere near the state of Victoria. It was named by British explorer Ernest Giles in 1875 in honour of Queen Victoria. Covering almost 350,000 square kilometres, the Great Victoria Desert is the largest in Australia – plus the seventh-biggest desert on Earth. Despite its massive size, this natural wonder remains largely untouched – thanks to its incredibly remote location. Here's everything you need to know about the Great Victoria Desert. Where is the Great Victoria Desert? Straddling both Western Australia and South Australia, the Great Victoria Desert stretches from east of Kalgoorlie-Boulder to west of Coober Pedy and north of the Nullarbor Plain. It lies within the traditional lands of several Indigenous groups, including the Pitjantjatjara, Ngaanyatjarra and Mirning peoples, who have lived in the region for tens of thousands of years. How to get to the Great Victoria Desert? You'll need a 4WD, some serious outback experience and a sense of adventure to reach the Great Victoria. Much of the desert is on remote Aboriginal land or defence land, so you'll likely need permits to travel through or camp on. From Western Australia, your best bet is to depart from Kalgoorlie or Laverton, travelling east via the Great Central Road or Anne Beadell Highway. Expect long stretches of unsealed roads, with the journey taking around three to five hours from Kalgoorlie, or one to two from Laverton. If you're coming from South Australia, start in Coober Pedy or Ceduna and head north or northwest via Maralinga or the Anne Beadell Highway. Depending on road conditions, you're looking at a five- to seven-hour drive. How big is the Great Victoria Desert? Stretching 700 kilometres east to west and covering a mega 348,750 square kilometres in total, Great Victoria is the largest desert in Australia. It's also the seventh-largest subtropical desert on the planet – bigger than the entire United Kingdom (243,000 square kilometres). How was the Great Victoria Desert formed? Millions of years ago, this now-arid expanse was submerged beneath the sea. As the waters receded, they left behind vast plains of sand and sediment. Over time, wind and erosion sculpted the landscape, forming the red sand dunes and spinifex grasslands we see today. The scorching heat and scarce rainfall have kept it firmly in desert mode ever since. What animals live in the Great Victoria Desert? Despite its harsh and remote nature, the Great Victoria Desert is home to a surprising variety of wildlife, including thorny devils, bearded dragons, spinifex hopping mice, mulgaras, dunnarts, budgerigars and other rare desert birds. What to do in the Great Victoria Desert? Due to its remote location, few Aussies have actually set foot in the Great Victoria Desert. Those adventurous enough to make the journey can wander among striking red sand dunes, explore spinifex grasslands, discover ancient rock formations and salt lakes, spot desert animals and camp under some of the darkest, clearest night skies in Australia.
Sydney Morning Herald
25-07-2025
- General
- Sydney Morning Herald
Landmark show is a monumental tribute to family, Country and care
The Bundanon Art Museum's Winter Series opens with a landmark exhibition by Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, one of the most celebrated painters from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. A senior cultural custodian and long-time artist with Mimili Maku Arts, she paints in the community where she lives, grounding her work in the rhythms of Country. Her practice rests on a powerful matrilineal line, shaped by generations of women who have carried and shared cultural knowledge through image, story and ceremony. Small in number but monumental in scale, the paintings in this show trace Pumani's artistic evolution over more than 15 years. Together, they chart a compelling arc, honouring both the refinement of her style and the deep knowledge that sustains it. While her visual language shifts over time, her subject stays constant: her Country, Antara – held, reimagined and passed down through generations. Curated by Bundanon chief executive Rachel Kent, in collaboration with Mimili Maku Arts, the exhibition centres on Pumani's intergenerational matrilineage. Her first major museum survey honours the women who shaped her practice and those who will carry it forward. Its title, Malatja-malatja – a Pitjantjatjara phrase meaning 'those who come after' – speaks to a responsibility grounded, not in ownership, but in care and continuity. What we do now, Pumani reminds us, belongs to the generations ahead. This vision of custodianship runs through her work and is echoed in the presence of key paintings by her mother, Kunmanara (Milatjari) Pumani, and elder sister, Kunmanara (Ngupulya) Pumani. Their works root the exhibition in shared authority and matrilineal knowledge. These mesmerising, pulsating canvases reveal how ancestral stories adapt over time. The story stays the same, but each artist brings it to life through her own visual language. In Pumani's hands, that language is unmistakable: cobalt waterholes, Pilbara-red boulders, and white, lace-like passages that conjure maku and tobacco flowers. Her paintings carry Country's pulse, its lifeblood flowing through red veins and deep blue springs, surrounded by the quiet shimmer of renewal.
The Age
25-07-2025
- General
- The Age
Landmark show is a monumental tribute to family, Country and care
The Bundanon Art Museum's Winter Series opens with a landmark exhibition by Betty Kuntiwa Pumani, one of the most celebrated painters from the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. A senior cultural custodian and long-time artist with Mimili Maku Arts, she paints in the community where she lives, grounding her work in the rhythms of Country. Her practice rests on a powerful matrilineal line, shaped by generations of women who have carried and shared cultural knowledge through image, story and ceremony. Small in number but monumental in scale, the paintings in this show trace Pumani's artistic evolution over more than 15 years. Together, they chart a compelling arc, honouring both the refinement of her style and the deep knowledge that sustains it. While her visual language shifts over time, her subject stays constant: her Country, Antara – held, reimagined and passed down through generations. Curated by Bundanon chief executive Rachel Kent, in collaboration with Mimili Maku Arts, the exhibition centres on Pumani's intergenerational matrilineage. Her first major museum survey honours the women who shaped her practice and those who will carry it forward. Its title, Malatja-malatja – a Pitjantjatjara phrase meaning 'those who come after' – speaks to a responsibility grounded, not in ownership, but in care and continuity. What we do now, Pumani reminds us, belongs to the generations ahead. This vision of custodianship runs through her work and is echoed in the presence of key paintings by her mother, Kunmanara (Milatjari) Pumani, and elder sister, Kunmanara (Ngupulya) Pumani. Their works root the exhibition in shared authority and matrilineal knowledge. These mesmerising, pulsating canvases reveal how ancestral stories adapt over time. The story stays the same, but each artist brings it to life through her own visual language. In Pumani's hands, that language is unmistakable: cobalt waterholes, Pilbara-red boulders, and white, lace-like passages that conjure maku and tobacco flowers. Her paintings carry Country's pulse, its lifeblood flowing through red veins and deep blue springs, surrounded by the quiet shimmer of renewal.
ABC News
27-05-2025
- General
- ABC News
What Does Reconciliation Look Like?
MIRABELLE, STUDENT: Hi, I'm Mirabelle, and my mob is the Pitjantjatjara. BONNIE, STUDENT: I'm Bonnie, and our mob is the same. CALLUM, STUDENT: My name is Callum. I'm from Koonibba which is near Ceduna. SAPHIRA, STUDENT: Hi, so I'm Saphira and our mob is Pitjantjatjara/Yankunytjatjara. ARLIAH, STUDENT: My name's Arliah and my mob is Wemba Wemba. KRISTIAN, STUDENT: My name is Kristian, I'm from the Nukunu mob. LEDGER, STUDENT: My name is Ledger and I'm from the Kokatha Mob. STEPHEN, STUDENT: My name is Stephen and I'm from Ngarrindjeri Mob. TRUDY, STUDENT: I'm Trudy. My mob is Wakka Wakka and Budjari around Queensland. BELLA, STUDENT: My name is Bella, and I am a proud Pitjantjatjara from APY Lands woman. LEDGER: The Aboriginal culture is not just one massive culture, it's all divided up into small groups and mobs. KRISTIAN: If you look at a mob map of Australia, there are probably hundreds of different mobs all around the country. It's just really cool to see that so many people live here. MICHELLE WAKIM, REPORTER: Once a year, these First Nations students come together for a Nunga Tag Sports Carnival on Kaurna Land in Adelaide, South Australia. CALLUM: We're playing Nunga Tag, also known as Rugby Tag. It's been pretty fun. TRUDY: It's just like rugby, without tackling. BELLA: So, it's like, Oz tag. This event is an opportunity to celebrate culture, make new mates and catch up with old ones. TRUDY: My favourite part about Nunga Tag is like, that I get to play with my friends and all that. Just hang out with them and stuff, laugh with them and stuff. ARLIAH: And it's like bringing the past, present and emerging people all together, like no matter like what mob you're from and everything. It's just like everyone just coming together and just having a good time. And this carnival just happens to be held in the lead-up to Reconciliation Week. TRUDY: Yeah, this is, like, a very nice way to come together, especially for Reconciliation Week. It's just like all of us as Aboriginal individuals kind of like celebrating together. KRISTIAN: For me, it's like a great way to connect to the Aboriginal roots of the country, to get everybody involved and what it means to be an Aboriginal. STEPHEN: Yeah, that's what he said basically but, yeah, so it's a, it's just really a great way to connect everybody, like into one essentially like group and reconcile with everyone. STUDENT: We are grateful for the Aboriginal people and we're sorry. Reconciliation Week falls between two really important dates. It starts on the 27th of May, which is the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum, when 90% of Aussies voted to change the Constitution to make sure Indigenous people were counted alongside and subject to the same laws as other Australian citizens. It ends on the 3rd of June, also known as Mabo Day, when the High Court of Australia recognised that First Nations people had rights to land their ancestors had lived on for thousands of years. Reconciliation Week is about celebrating these milestones and others. KEVIN RUDD, FORMER AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: And for their families left behind, we say sorry. And the people who fought for them. But, it's also about recognising all the work that still needs to be done. KRISTIAN: We still get a lot of racism, people calling us slurs, being disrespectful to the country, just stuff like that. Aboriginal elders should have a say in what happens like with their land, like with the implement of like houses and that type of stuff. STEPHEN: He keeps, he keeps, I think he's like reading my mind because like that's what I was going to say, so yeah. MIRABELLE: Some people can feel discriminated, left out. It's a big problem that has been around for ages and ages. And the uninvolvement of people of colour is really bad. We need to fix that. It's 2025. BONNIE: I think part of the problem is that some of the Indigenous people still aren't able to get the learning experience than others and it just separates us a little bit more. These students say there needs to be more education about First Nations cultures and that people need to take every chance they can to come together to listen and learn from each other. MIRABELLE: I want every future like generation of the First Nations and of Australia to learn about the history, to look at artefacts, because I don't think it's talked about enough. BELLA: I think language and culture should be included more often in schools, just to make it feel more alive. CALLUM: Teach people from a young age that, like, we are all human. BONNIE: Having more events like this today would make it easier for people to learn about Indigenous people and First Nations people. MIRABELLE: If like someone asks where you're from, feel really confident, like, it's a good thing to share your culture. STEPHEN: I hope that people will like just be more open, like with every culture and just basically everyone in Australia, no matter their race, no matter their identity, no matter, no matter anything. STUDENTS: Happy Reconciliation Week!
