Mens Desert Shieldby Maruku Arts

Maruku Arts is a large and successful Aboriginal Australian-owned and -operated enterprise, run by Anangu (people of the Western and Central Deserts of Australia) since about 1990. It has a warehouse based in Mutitjulu community (at the eastern end of the rock), a retail gallery at Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park Cultural Centre, as well as a market stall in Yulara town square. Its artwork consists mainly of paintings and woodcarvings. With about 900 artists in the collective, it provides an important source of income living in remote communities across central Australia. It seeks to "keep culture strong and alive, for future generations of artists, and to make culture accessible in an authentic way to those that seek a more in-depth understanding"

Maruku is one of ten Indigenous-owned and -governed enterprises that go to make up the APY Art Centre Collective, established in 2013. In June 2020, Salon Art Projects, in association with Maruku, mounted an exhibition called "PUNU – Living Wood" at the Paul Johnstone Gallery in Darwin. The exhibition included hand-carved kali (boomerangs), wana (digging sticks), Piti, wiras and mimpus (bowls) and a range of walka boards (designs burnt, painted and etched onto plywood), with work by artists including Niningka Lewis, Cynthia Burke and Fred Grant.  Punu is a Pitjantjatjara word meaning "living wood"

View more artworks by this artist