APY Lands (West)

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The APY Lands cover 103,000 square kilometers of desert in the north of the state of South Australia. APY stands for Anangu (indigenous Australians) Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara, two language groups, whose traditional homelands are located there. In 1981 it was returned to the Aborigines living there as Aboriginal Freehold Title Land.

The Western APY Lands are located 1,500 km from Adelaide, the capital of South Australia, up to a two day trip from Alice Springs, the nearest town in the Northern Territory. There are three small but very special art centres here that have taken the Australian art world by storm over the past ten years. The artworks from Tjala Arts, Tjungu Palya ansNinuku Arts are exceptionally authentic and vibrant and show an aesthectic far off the beaten tracks of Central and Western Desert art.