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Community: Lajamanu
The community of Lajamanu was originally established in 1946, when some 25 Warlpiri people, were forcibly relocated from Yuendumu. In 1951 another one hundred Warlpiri people were similarly relocated. On three separate occasions, the entire community has returned to their tribal land at Yuendumu and it was only when the the first children were born at Lajamanu that the Warlpiri felt that they were able to remain at this new community.
It was not until the mid-1980s that aboriginal artists from Lajamanu began to paint using acrylics and only after considerable debate about the acceptability of creating painting for sale, Aboriginal elders were particularly critical of the public translation of traditional stories into permanent materials that had been occurring at Papunya since 1971.
Unlike other communities such as Yuendumu and Papunya, no permanent artists cooperative has been established, this is largely due to lack of funding on the grounds that their is an art centre for Warlpiri people at Yuendumu.
Within Lajamanu, there are wide stylistic variations, these variations can generally be divided between men's painting and women's painting. Senior male aboriginal artists such as rainmaker, Abie Jangala create paintings of strong iconographic power, usually with only one or two elements that are encapsulated in a brilliant field of white dots that represents rain and simultaneously is used to hide, important sacred information. In contrast, female artists notably, Lorna fencer and Liddy Nelson, paint in a very free gestural style, fully exploiting the riotous colour of modern acrylic paints.
Aboriginal art prints has for many years had close association with artists from Lajamanu, including the publication of a series of prints by major artists from Lajamanu in our new touring exhibition, Yilpinji, love Magic and ceremony. Major artists in this exhibition include, Abie Jangala, Lily Hargraves, Rosie Tasman, Liddy Nelson and Ronnie Lawson.
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