National Library of Australia unveils Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre
A major exhibition and an important new book showcase the decades-long, remarkable efforts of the Papunya community to record language and culture and keep it alive.
On Saturday 4 April the National Library of Australia will open a major new exhibition telling the story of the remarkable literary and artistic output of the Papunya Literature Production Centre.
Papunya is a remote Aboriginal community in the Western Desert region of the Northern Territory, and the birthplace of the internationally known Western Desert art movement. Between 1979 and 1990, the Papunya Literature Production Centre produced hundreds of Pintupi-Luritja bilingual readers guided by the community’s Elders, among them pioneers of the Western Desert art movement.
The readers – illustrated books – were produced as literacy tools for local schoolchildren and tell stories of first contact, Dreamings, community life, plants, animals and more. Some are funny and wildly creative. Others are moving, dramatic and extraordinary. Together, they form a living record of an Indigenous language, safeguarding the knowledge and stories contained within them for future generations.
In the 10-year period the Literature Production Centre was operating, the Library received more than 350 readers under legal deposit provisions where they have remained in safekeeping. The exhibition, Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre, brings them to life and builds on a recent exhibition on show at the Library and Archives NT in Darwin. It features stories, drawings, photographs, manuscripts, ephemera and oral histories from the collections of the Papunya community, Papunya School, National Library of Australia, Australian National University, and other private collections.
Released simultaneously with the exhibition opening is a landmark publication of the same name from NLA Publishing written by Vivien Johnson, Samantha Disbray and Charlotte Phillipus. It shares the overarching story of this important Aboriginal literary movement, powered by collective creativity and cultural pride and the remarkable story of the books they made, from their creation and use to their loss and rediscovery. The book includes fully illustrated recreations of several Papunya readers in Pintupi-Luritja language.
“Wangka Wakaṉutja” is Pintupi-Luritja for “the story has been told”, which is a fitting title for a project that honours the voices, histories and creative legacy of the Papunya community. It has been a privilege to continue working with members of the Papunya community, bringing First Nations stories to more people across Australia and around the world.
Old stories and new stories. For people (Aṉangu) to gather stories, put them on tapes, we would translate them, all those old stories. Scary stories, hunting stories, stories about everything, we were collecting them, translating and recording them together alongside pictures. There were lots of us working at the literacy program, ladies and men some drawing and some collecting stories.
Thanks to the generosity of an anonymous Library Patron, over 350 publications from the Library’s collections were digitised as part of our Papunya Literature Production Centre digitisation project in 2024, in consultation with the community, and are now freely available online via Trove.
Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre opens at 9am on Saturday 4 April at the National Library of Australia and will run until Sunday 11 October 2026. Entry to the exhibition gallery is free, no bookings required.
The exhibition is curated by Karen McDonald, Roslyn Dixon, Kuḻaṯa Dennis Nelson, Priscilla Brown, Charlotte Phillipus, Vivien Johnson, Samantha Disbray, Guy Hansen, Allister Mills and Loris Gulliver.
The book is available for pre-order now and will be available in bookstores from Wednesday 1 April.
Media kit
Images and captions for media use available for download via Dropbox.
About the book, pronunciation guide and audio
Media enquiries
Georgia McDonald, Media Liaison, National Library of Australia
Phone: 0401 226 697
Email: media@nla.gov.au
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