Papunya Tula Art of the Western Desert by Geoffrey Bardon 2002 Aboriginal Art.

The Papunya Tula Art Movement began in 1971 when Geoffrey Bardon, a schoolteacher in the remote community of Papunya, encouraged some of his students to paint expressions of their own cultural traditions instead of teaching western conventions. Bardon was fascinated by the sinuous line drawings the children made in the sand and sensed their connection to social and ontological understandings. He encouraged the children to paint a public mural for the school using these images, however the children were reluctant. Eventually, a group of Elders came to Bardon and presented him with a design representing the Honey Ant Tjukurrpa (Dreaming story), an important story for the area.

Bardon, affectionately known as ‘Mr Patterns’ by the artists, arranged for some of the senior men to paint a mural on the school wall. A rotating group of men including Old Bert Tjakamarra, Bill Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Long Jack Phillipus Tjakamarra, Old Mick Tjakamarra and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa painted the mural over a period of weeks.

The resulting Honey Ant mural sparked tremendous interest in the community and inspired many more men to paint. Collectively, these artists produced the exquisite ‘Papunya boards’ – a body of paintings on boards and small panels based on ceremonial designs and Tjukurrpa (Dreaming stories). These men became the pioneers of the Western Desert Art Movement – the acrylic painting movement that exploded onto the contemporary art scene, forcing the international art world to take notice.