Permanent Exhibitions

The Punttu Family Exhibition

Punttu is often translated into English as ‘skin name’. It is certainly a name. Each Warumungu person has one, maybe two, punttu. Women’s punttu start with N, like Nappanangka, while men’s punttu start with J, like Jappanangka. You use them instead of personal names when talking to people ‘Hey Nappanangka!’, or when talking about people ‘Nappanangka’s gone home’. We don’t really know where ‘skin’ came from. Perhaps it reflects the fact that your punttu is as much part of you as your skin is. You can’t change it.

There are sixteen Warumungu punttu, eight for women, and eight for men. So there are eight punttu groups, sometimes called ‘skin groups’. Nappanangka and Jappanangka are in the same group. These eight punttu groups can be merged together into two large groups, called Kingili and Wurlurru. These are ‘patrimoieties’. People are usually in the opposite patrimoiety from their mothers, and in the same patrimoiety as their father.

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PAST EVENTS

Faith, Culture, Country: The art of Susannah Nakamarra Nelson

Faith, Culture, Country is a survey of later works by Warlmanpa woman Susannah Nakamarra Nelson. Painted in her last decade the exhibition celebrates a lifetime of painting and Nakamarra’s momentous contribution to the Tennant Creek's art scene.

Countryman film Screening 13th April 2022

Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre will be screening Countryman on the evening of the 13th of April.

Check out the trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYbhZus97Qk

A film by Peter Pecotić and Joseph Williams

A 10,000 kms journey where Indigenous and Immigrant Australian stories converge.

Retracing his late immigrant father’s footsteps, a traveller from the urban coast embarks on a 10,000km road trip around Northern Australia. In remote desert country he encounters an emerging Warumungu artist whose father was also a migrant. Through their growing friendship they discover the living history of each other’s Indigenous and Mediterranean ancestry re-igniting connections along the way.