• Warrdalyai Country
  • Warrdalyai Country
  • Warrdalyai Country
  • Warrdalyai Country
  • Warrdalyai Country

Denise Robertson

Warrdalyai Country


Regular price   

    • Synthetic Polymer Paint on Canvas
    • Dimensions: 40cm x 30cm
    • Cat No. 669-15

Denise Napangardi is a Grandmother and Great Grandmother. Her family are deeply contected to Warnayaka Art as far back as the 1980s when Warlpiri here decided to sell art work in the commercial art market space. Denise has represented the art centre as a cultural knowledge holder in France, Poland and Germany. She has a big role in Lajamanu as a senior lady. She also works in Aged Care looking after the very old people in Lajamanu doing meals on wheels. On fleeting occasions she comes to paint at the art centre.


Lajamanu has a population of around 900 Warlpiri people. The older generation see Warnayaka as an avenue to achieve a number of needs that are present in their community. At the centre these elders still create their dot paintings. The most important thing expressed by members, is the need to preserve and pass on the cultural significance of Warlpiri, the culture of the people of Lajamanu, which encompasses not only art, but includes language, social structure, law and country. In doing so it is understood that excellence in art, prosperity from art sales, employment opportunities and preservation of pride in being Warlpiri will result. The art centre is a Warlpiri corporation and is staffed mainly by the children of the older generation of Indigenous Lajamanu residents who remember their first contact with white Australia. They maintain the computerised data base and run the art centre production. Older and younger community members produce Aboriginal dot paintings and make wooden artefacts. The centre is a place for a cup of tea and a song and dance, and then a trip into the Spinifex desert to look for goanna and lizards or to collect bush coconut, bush banana, yams and bush honey from native bees.


Best efforts are made to get your purchase on its way within 2 business days. Postage from Darwin can be slow so please bear with us! 

All works are packed securely to protect during shipping. All items valued over $100 are insured for damage during transit. 

If you are purchasing multiple works, please email us for custom shipping rates. 

Items purchased online that are part of an exhibition will be shipped at the end of the exhibition period.