The Wangka Waltja exhibition opened at Papunya on 12 November 2024 and tours nationally from 2025. 

The remarkable creative output of the Papunya Literature Production Centre is at the heart of the Wangka Walytja Exhibition. Hundreds of illustrated books in Pintupi-Luritja were published at the Centre for the bilingual education program during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s - stories of first contact, the Dreaming, bush plants, animals and life on pastoral stations, missions, government settlements and communities.  

The exhibition, co-curated by former Literature Production Centre staff Charlotte Phillipus, Karen McDonald, Roslyn Dixon and Kulata Dennis Nelson, and UQ researchers Vivien Johnson and Samantha Disbray, gives voice to the authors and illustrators. Many were the children in the playground who watched their kin, the Papunya art men, founders of the world-renown Papunya Art movement, painting the famous honey ant mural on the school wall.  

In the exhibition, a selection of the original drawings, manuscripts, photographs and Community newsletter feature alongside new productions; new works by lead illustrator Kulata Dennis Nelson, the Wangka Walytja film about and by the collection creators, and animations created through digital creative Community workshops. 

The extensive collection, including stories, transcripts and manuscripts, original drawings, community newspapers, and photographs, tapes and videos created in the Literature Production Centre have been stored for over three decades in the old darkroom at the school since the bilingual program ended. Wangka Walytja brings this important collection and its story out of the darkroom and to audiences across Australia.  

Wangka Walytja builds on the ARC Discovery Project ‘The illustrated Literature of Papunya and Strelley’ (UQ CI, S. Disbray, 2020-2024), which traces the histories of two key centres and the communities in which they were and are embedded, their authors and illustrators, to build a dynamic picture of Indigenous Australia that contributes another dimension to the history of art and literature in Australia.  

Project members

Dr Samantha Disbray

Indigenous Language Revitalisation Program Convenor
Co-Director of Indigenous Engagement
Senior Lecturer in Endangered Languages
School of Languages and Cultures

Dr Vivien Johnson

Casual Project Officer & Research Associate
School of Languages and Cultures