From the Tiwi Islands to the South Australian border, there’s rich indigenous culture and the ‘quirky contemporary’ to be enjoyed.
Learning dot painting with Maruku Arts. Image: Tourism NT/Archie Sartracom
It is a trail that traverses 65,000 years and more than 1.2 million square kilometres of arts, culture and wide-open space.
The Northern Territory Arts Trail has been launched as a series of journeys to connect cultural sites and events between Australia’s Top End to the Red Centre, through World Heritage rock art sites, to cutting-edge fashion and food festivals, and spiritual immersions.
It runs from the Tiwi Islands in the Arafura Sea to the South Australian border, with targeted itineraries that start from Darwin, Katherine, Kakadu, Alice Springs and Uluru.
Northern Territory local and Darwin Style social media influencer Lisa Andrews says the trail offers an easy way to navigate the globally significant arts and culture experiences and attractions across the Territory.
“People can easily link together a holiday in the Territory that has an arts and culture element to it,” she says.
“It has very rich indigenous art and culture; you cannot find this anywhere else. There’s the rock art that you genuinely can’t see anywhere else.
“Then we have the kind of quirky arts side of things, with events and music. We have the best of both worlds. We have the rich indigenous culture and the contemporary art.”
Visitors learn basket weaving and Aboriginal culture on a Pudakul Aboriginal Cultural Tour. Image: Tourism NT/Nick Pincott
The Trail offers a compelling way to visit the Central Australian cradle of world-renowned Aboriginal art centres, from the Hermannsburg water colours to the dot paintings of the Western Desert and the bark cross-hatching of Arnhem Land.
It also curates contemporary arts and food experiences from hole-in-the-wall bars and burger joints in Darwin to coffee caravans in Katherine.
Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory (MAGNT) director Marcus Schutenko oversees the region’s biggest collections of exhibits and artefacts from Aboriginal culture to natural science, to history and art.
He says getting away to outer communities and art centres is extraordinary.
“You could go to a hundred exhibitions in the big galleries at the big cities and you’re not going to learn as much as visiting a remote community and seeing how the artists make their work,” he says.
There are five distinct itineraries.
One starts in Darwin, the highest concentration of galleries and exhibitions.
The Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory has a huge collection of indigenous and Western art, with a range of travelling exhibits. From there, another stop is Aboriginal Bush Traders, also in the CBD, which operates as a not-for-profit indigenous enterprise and offers authentic bush tucker from the MAGNT’s Lyons Cottage overlooking the water.
From there, visitors can find out more about local culture and history with a Pudakul Aboriginal Cultural Tour or through Northern Territory Indigenous Tours. A two-and-a-half-hour ferry to the Tiwi Islands reveals unique local ochre and stringybark arts, including from the Milikapiti’s Jilamara Arts and Crafts Association.
Artwork at Aboriginal Bush Traders. Tourism NT/Nick Pincott
Travellers can also start in Katherine, where the Outback meets the Tropics. Nitmiluk National Park – home to Katherine Gorge - offers spectacular natural beauty and insights into Jawoyn people rock art through the “Footsteps of our Ancestors” tours.
Just more than an hour east of Katherine is Djilpin Arts, which highlights the West Arnhem-style of painting, carving, fibre art, didgeridoos and jewellery from the Wugularr community.
From the World Heritage-listed Kakadu, with its rock art dating back 20,000 years, tours can assist to experience both the cultural and natural elements of the 20,000 sq km national park. These include rock art at Burrungkuy (Nourlangie), Nanguluwurr and Ubirr, where the images depict x-ray animals and early interactions between Europeans and Aboriginal people.
From Alice Springs, within a 300km radius lie some of the world’s most significant arts hubs. Iltja Ntjarra art centre is the centre for the Namatjira watercolour artists, followers of Hermannsburg traditions pioneered by celebrated artist Albert Namatjira. In Papunya, 250km west of Alice, the significant Western Desert dot-painting movement was born and continues today with 100 per cent indigenous-owned Papunya Tjupi Artists. Other unique offerings include the Ikuntji Artists, which was started by women in an aged care home as the first female arts centre of the Western Desert Art Movement.
The international destination Uluru is another place to kickstart the Arts Trail across the desert. The Walkatjara Art gallery at the national park is housed in an architecture award-winning building and allows visitors to see the Anangu culture and art creation from the Maruku arts centre. The iconic Field of Light installation by Bruce Munro is close by and in place until the end of next year.
Northern Territory Aboriginal Tourism Advisory Council Chair and operator of the Banubanu Beach Retreat - off the coast of Nhulunbuy - Helen Martin, says driving the Arts Trails is the best way to experience the NT highlights.
“[Visitors] get to see a range of beautiful landscapes across the Territory that connect you to nature,” she says.
“[They] can take time to explore the smaller art centres and communities. You will find the artist each have their own style distinctive to their region, which makes each art centre unique in its own element.”