Some of Australia’s finest artists, including Kuninjku artists John Mawurndjul, Owen Yalandja  and Crusoe Kurddal, Kune artist Lena Yarinkura, and Rembarrnga artist Bob Burruwal are represented by Maningrida Arts and Culture.

We also protect the legacy and place in history for those artists who have come before, including Wally Mardarrk, Johnny Bulunbulun, Peter Marralwanga, Jack Wunuwun and Yirawala, and we support emerging and mid-career artists from the region.

We are an Aboriginal art centre that empowers local artists to pursue successful global careers from their homeland and township bases. Their artwork is of exceptional quality and cultural integrity, and we market and sell it to visitors, collectors and institutions throughout the world.

Senior artists have the authority to channel their cultural knowledge and connections to country and activate new cultural expressions emerging from djang (the life-giving creative power that resides in ancestral country), invoking customary ways and practices, experimenting with visual forms, and inventing the contemporary.

Conceptually merging the natural and spiritual worlds, the secular and sacred, and embodying ancestral presence, some artworks express or focus on the power of country itself, others the ancestral activities that created it or inhabit it: the powerful Rainbow Serpent Ngalyod, female water spirits including Yawkyawk and jin-Merdewa, and spirit beings such as mimih, Namorrorddo and Wangarra.

Artists have control over all stages of the production of their work and use materials derived from and sustainably harvested on their clan estates: ochres and pigments that are powerful ancestral substances in themselves, the bark, wood and roots of trees, palm leaves and vines, feathers, and wax from bush honey.

The establishment of a Cultural Research Office within the art centre in 1993 means that Maningrida artwork documentation, including provenance and explanations and interpretations of cultural value, are impeccable.

Our culture lies in the ground… It lies in the earth, but we are bringing it out…where we can see it.

Ivan Namirrki, Kuninjku artist

Phone: 08 8979 6100
Opening hours: Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 4.00 pm
Website: maningrida.com