Wangka Wakanutja

The Papunya Literature Production Centre (PLPC) was the centre of community life at Papunya in the 1980s.

Fuelled by youthful energy and guided by the community’s Elders – among them pioneers of the Western Desert Art movement – the centre produced more than 300 Pintupi-Luritja readers in a little over ten years. These books hold accounts of moments of first contact, Dreaming stories, life in the community, plants, animals and more. They were written and illustrated on Country and in language. After the program ended, these readers lay boxed in a padlocked dark room...until Dr Samantha Disbray unearthed the key.

The Papunya readers are full of humour, as in Kata yurilpa (Bald Head), which is about a man who uses special plants to grow his hair for a Midnight Oil concert and turns up looking like a long-haired rocker, only to find that the lead singer has a bald head. And they are full of drama, as in the many stories about the first plane ever sighted by the Papunya community, which some believed was a ‘stumpy winged devil’, or in Walypalalitju Lurtjurinytjaku (Me and a Whitefella Meeting), which is a unique document of one man’s personal journey from first contact.

In Pintupi-Luritja, Wangka Wakanutja (pronounced WUN-ka WUK-a-noo-tja) means ‘the story has been told’. Richly illustrated with photos of the artists, authors and students in action, as well as artwork from the readers themselves, this is the definitive story of a radical bilingual literature movement, powered by collective creativity and cultural pride.

About the Author

Sociologist Professor Vivien Johnson’s connection to Papunya, its artists and art movement spans more than four decades.

Charlotte Phillipus is a retired teacher, community linguist, renowned artist and authority on Pintupi-Luritja. She was a leading writer for the PLPC and guided Vivien and Samantha in all stages of this book.

Dr Samantha Disbray is a lecturer in endangered languages and involved with Indigenous language revitalisation.