Sand paintings of the Western Desert: a demonstration

Australia, 1981

Film
Please note

Sorry, we don't have images or video for this item.

Aboriginal artists, Paddy Garrol Tjungarrayi and Dinni Nolan Tjampatimpa, demonstrate the making of a sandpainting - a traditional art form intended to be impermanent. The paintings are made in a ritual manner and then destroyed as they are danced upon during a corroboree. Shows the adaptation of western technology by the Papunya people to this traditional art form.

Content notification

Our collection comprises over 40,000 moving image works, acquired and catalogued between the 1940s and early 2000s. As a result, some items may reflect outdated, offensive and possibly harmful views and opinions. ACMI is working to identify and redress such usages.

Learn more about our collection and our collection policy here. If you come across harmful content on our website that you would like to report, let us know.

How to watch

This work has not been digitised and is currently unavailable to view online. It may be possible for approved reseachers to view onsite at ACMI.

Learn more about accessing our collection

Collection

In ACMI's collection

Credits

director

Stephen O'Rourke

co-producer

Penelope Jools

Stephen O'Rourke

production company

ABC-TV (Australia)

Penelope Jools

Stephen O'Rourke

Duration

00:10:00:00

Production places
Australia
Production dates
1981

Collection metadata

ACMI Identifier

303305

Language

English

Subject categories

Aboriginal Australia → Aboriginal Australians - Western Australia

Aboriginal Australia → Art, Aboriginal Australian

Anthropology, Ethnology, Exploration & Travel → Papunya (N.T.)

Crafts & Visual Arts → Art, Aboriginal Australian

Crafts & Visual Arts → Sandpaintings

Documentary

Documentary → Documentary films - Australia

People → Tjampatimpa, Dinni Nolan

People → Tjungarrayi, Paddy Carroll

Places → Papunya (N.T.)

Short films

Short films → Short films - Australia

Sound/audio

Sound

Colour

Colour

Holdings

VHS; Access Print (Section 1)

Please note: this archive is an ongoing body of work. Sometimes the credit information (director, year etc) isn’t available so these fields may be left blank; we are progressively filling these in with further research.

Cite this work on Wikipedia

If you would like to cite this item, please use the following template: {{cite web |url=https://acmi.net.au/works/82165--sand-paintings-of-the-western-desert-a-demonstration-a/ |title=Sand paintings of the Western Desert: a demonstration |author=Australian Centre for the Moving Image |access-date=2 January 2025 |publisher=Australian Centre for the Moving Image}}