The legacy of Papunya Tula, the organisation that has become synonymous with the emergence of Western Desert art, remains foundational in Papunya where not only is seemingly everyone directly connected to the first Papunya Tula painters, but even the streets are named after famous artists. This is undoubtedly painting country. The homelands movement of the late 1970s and early 1980s saw the exodus of many of those early Papunya Tula painters back to their country, taking the company with them. Senior artists that remained in Papunya refused to resign themselves to not having their own art centre, and eventually, in 2007, Papunya Tjupi Arts was born.

As an exemplar of an artist driven resurgence, Papunya Tjupi Arts is a 100% Aboriginal owned and directed community arts organisation, where the artists have established their own unique identity based on the legacy of their forefathers. There are traces of the formal Papunya style that evolved from the original painting movement – however the freedom for the now 150 artists to explore their own style has seen a complete nonconformity in the way painters find themselves in their canvas.

Ngaṉanpatju Yara – Our Story is a celebration of the breadth of unique visual identities Papunya Tjupi artists have created.