News

A quick summary of major events in coming months that we are involved in:

• 28 June - 23 July, Exhibition: Working Together at Northern Rivers Community Gallery, Ballina NSW. An exhibition of textiles and fibre works by Bundjalung Wake Up Time and Kunwinjku Women. Includes hand-printed fabrics, pandanus baskets and mats.
• 28 June - 29 July, Exhibition: Mayhmayh: Different Birds at Nomad Arts, Darwin. Opening 8th July. An exhibition of artworks by Graham Badari, Gabriel Maralngurra, Joe Guymala and Thompson Nganjmirra. The feature paintings are from a forthcoming book of the same name by Graham Badari.
• 31 July - 27 August, Exhibition: Get it on! Aboriginal Bush Traders, Darwin NT. Awards night 12th August. A collaborative exhibition of clothing and items made from Injalak Arts designed and handprinted fabrics. More than 40 participants from around Australia and the US, India and Italy.
• 11 - 13 August, Event: Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair, Convention Centre Darwin. 40+ art centres from around Australia selling direct for three glorious and very busy days.
• 13 - 15 October, Event: Tarnanthi Art Fair, Adelaide. Three days of art centres selling direct in Adelaide.
• 3 November - 9 December, Exhibition: Injalak Fabric Addressed at Godinymayin Yijard Rivers Arts & Culture Centre, Katherine NT. This exhibition is a curated selection of 20 garments from the Get On It program.        
• EVERY Thursday and Sunday afternoon in dry season (only): Mindil Beach Sunset Markets, Darwin. Fresh stock sent into Darwin weekly featuring fabrics, bags, cushion covers, scarves, baskets, cards and more.

It's the first of June and our visitors are enjoying the drive across the river, the magnificent views and the countryside is still green. It's Yekke (early dry season) with breezes and cool nights. We are getting back into the rhythm of having visitors after being cut off from the world since December. Our ladies are demonstrating weaving onsite again and making some gorgeous creations. We are putting some in our online Etsy shop. The men are onsite painting year round only now they have an audience. The print workshop is very busy as the demand for our exquisite hand-printed fabrics is growing.  We are putting the finishing touches to Mayhmayh. Different Birds an exhibition at Nomad Art in Darwin featuring paintings of birds of West Arnhem Land. The exhibition starts on 29th June. The feature paintings are from a forthcoming book by Graham Badari and they are BEAUTIFUL. At the same time the gorgeous creations for Get it on! are starting to arrive at the art centre. Forty participants from around Australia and beyond have made or are putting the finishing touches to their contributions and we've nearly finished negotiating a venue in Darwin to show them off. We are looking at dates around 5  - 26 August. Will update as soon as confirmed. You can follow the progress of many participants on Facebook and Instagram by using #getiton2017 ... and don't forget if you're at Darwin we're at Mindil Beach Markets EVERY Thursday and Sunday. 

The East Alligator River finally dropped low enough to allow vehicles to drive across and Cahills Crossing was officially declared 'open' last Friday. HELLO WORLD. We've already started receiving lovely visitors and Kakadu Cultural Tours and Top End Day Tours now bring guests to visit us 6 days a week (Monday - Saturday). They both have very comfortable vehicles and well-informed driver/guides and can be boarded in Jabiru. Both companies offer hop-on-board day tours that come to spend time at our art centre meeting and learning from the artists, weavers and printers working on-site. Self-drive visitors can get a day permit from the NLC to come in their own vehicles - here is information about how to get Gunbalanya and Injalak Arts. They can also book a tour of the rock art of Injalak hill led by one of our very capable local Aboriginal guides. Their ancestors have been custodians of this country for more than 40,000 years! If you are interested in a Rock Art Hill Tour please read the information here. You can book online. Please note bookings are essential in peak season. Read the glowing reviews written by visitors to our art centre on Trip Advisor. Venture North is a top end specialist and offers small group customised tours that also visit the art centre. We can't wait to see you here!

Bangkerreng is the late wet season - a fantastic time for fishing. Right now it's raining. *sad face* Usually by this time of the year the roads are relatively dry and we are welcoming guests .... not this year which has been one of the wettest on record. Roads access is still just a dream. Nevertheless we have been BUSY. So busy that this hasn't been updated since March - YIKES! So what's happening??? April has been Pozible campaign crowdfunding for ETHICAL ART THONGS month. We have samples of three great designs by Gabriel, Graham and Benson (Isaiah) on high quality fair trade rubber thongs manufactured in partnership with Etiko. It will cost more than $20,000 to order the minimum amounts of each design. Campaign finishes on 1.5 and we're just over halfway. It's a bit nerve wracking and we have our toes crossed. Please check it out - you'll find some excellent and varied rewards for pledges including Gift Vouchers. Get it on! - the project where participants make something out of our fabric is in full swing. Fabric had gone out to nearly everyone by Easter. Our Etsy online shop has been doing extremely well. We've been keeping it well stocked with newly made fabrics and other lovely hand-made products. Customers from all over the world including the US, France, UK, NZ, Singapore and even Myanmar (!!) have ordered and received their goods. So far our feedback is consistently five star - 69 times!! Big boxes have been arriving from our fair trade partners in Cambodia crammed full of new bags, clothing and other goodies. Meanwhile we've been getting our house in order - painting, cleaning and tidying around the art centre and also clearing the Injalak Hill Rock Art tour track ready for hill tours. If you'd like to visit go to Rock Art Tours in our menu (above). And also have a look at our Trip Advisor reviews... they're pretty darn good. Other things on the go include lots of juicy collaborations planned for 2017. We'll keep you updated.

Congratulations to the successful participants in Get It On!! We received more than 50 EOIs from around the world with a surprising number from professional designers/sewers. The variety and creativity was staggering. After assessing the applications we made a decision to expand the project to be as inclusive as possible. Originally capped at 25 participants we created two categories of participation so more than 40 creative people/collaborations will be involved. We aim to send out fabric around the end of the month with creations due back here at the end of May. It will be an extraordinary event! We are currently thinking about how participants and those interested can be kept in the loop through social media as the project unfolds. Meanwhile our artists and craftspeople are very productive with beautiful paintings and weavings walking in the door daily. Wet season is when the Pandanus is plentiful and basket making is at its zenith. Stunning woven objects including many sculptural works like stingrays and yawkyawks (mermaids) are being made. The fabric printing workshop has been going gangbusters with lots of stock now in our Etsy store. BIG THANKS to those customers who have been shopping there, it's been welcome cash flow in our lean season: the wet season flooding means we are still inaccessible by road. Our printing ladies (Selina, Sylvia and Priscilla) are currently working with Jude White, our printing trainer, who arrived on site on Saturday. They will all leave at the end of this week for a 2 week artist residency in Northern NSW teaching and learning with Bundjalung women of Wake Up Time. Finally, we have some staffing changes with the arrival of Laura Shipp, our new Art Centre Support Officer, and tomorrow we will be joined by Zoe Curran who will take up the Arts Administration Officer role. A big welcome to them both.

We are excited to announce the launch of a new event - Get it on! - inviting clothing designers/makers to create wearable items out of our hand-printed fabrics. We have 40+ different fabric designs created by our artist members. Our team prints these designs on silk, linen, linen/cotton and cotton on our 8 metre table. We are looking for inspiring ways of using our fabrics in womenswear, menswear and children's clothing. Can also include bags and wearable items (hats, jewellery). We supply the fabric and when participants have finished creating their piece they are rewarded with a gift voucher and included in an exhibition in Darwin in August 2017 also online. Prizes will be awarded in categories such as 'most fabulous', 'most surprising', 'most strategic use of fabric' and more. We have already had EOIs from potential participants from around the world. See our ever expanding Facebook album about the event here. For more information and details about how to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) send an email to director@injalak.com

We've only been open a week since the big 6 week wet season closure and it's been craaaaaazy. There has been non-stop rain so the roads and East Alligator River are in flood. Nobody can drive in or out - but that's normal for this time of year. What's not normal is to find that we've been featured on INSIDER Art, whose team kindly used video from our Instagram and Facebook accounts to create a lovely little feature video. Currently it's had 2.1M views. See it HERE. Seriously people, this is mad!! Here we are in a remote Aboriginal community in north Australia and yet people around the world are seeing and appreciating our fabric printing team working their magic. As a consequence we've getting fantastic feedback and lots of visits to our Etsy Shop - so we've made sure it's full of great things. Please consider supporting us because at this time of the year we have ZERO walk-in customers so cash flow plummets. Our artists (members) are still making lots of beautiful paintings, weavings, carvings and artefacts as well as printing so the Association supports them year round. Looking forward to a fantastic year and stay tuned for happenings and events. We've got a few in the works ....

The cicadas are getting noisy, the sun is fierce and clouds are gathering in they sky - Kurrung (season) is here. Yesterday was our final market in Darwin after attending Mindil Beach Markets and Saltwater Craft Fairs throughout 2016. It's been so great to share Injalak Arts with friends and visitors in Darwin. It's quiet in our retail store now so we've been working hard to make our products available on-line to our ever expanding audience. Our Pozible campaign was a WONDERFUL success with 130% of our target pledged. We give our deepest THANKS to the people who supported us and the campaign means we can now re-print The Kunwinjku Counting Book and share it more widely. We were delighted and humbled to receive a special donation in memory of Anne Murray, a beloved primary school teacher from Sydney. Meanwhile, on the art and craft side it's business as usual: our weavers are weaving, our artists are painting, the carvers are carving, our printers are printing, so still lots of wonderful work being produced. Please consider giving an Injalak Arts gift for Xmas - we send out promptly and all our products are hand-made and authentic. To see Injalak Arts products online visit Bluethumb (paintings) and Etsy (baskets, fabric lengths, fabric art panels). Also small paintings on Ebay. Our exhibition 'Interiors' featuring fabric art panels at Framed Gallery is on until 10th December 2016. Note: Injalak Arts will be closed for 6 weeks from 16th December.

As we get closer to the end of the year, the pace has hardly slowed for us. Visitor numbers are declining as the weather gets hotter but we're still getting some lovely customers and playing catch up with all the things we couldn't do during peak season. Our Business Plan 2016-19 is now finished, thanks to consultant David Muller. It's great to have a comprehensive, consultative document that describes us today and charts a way forward. Today we launched a Pozible crowdfunding campaign to fund the printing of this great project The Kunwinjku Counting Book featuring artworks by Gabriel Maralngurra. It will run for 29 days and supporters will receive the books in time for Xmas. Please check it out if you have time. Meanwhile we are working hard to improve the online shopping experience we offer to those who can't visit us in person. We relaunched our Etsy Store this week so have a look, it will be updated regularly. We are currently preparing for the final exhibition for the year - at Framed Gallery in Darwin. Injalak Arts has had an association with this Darwin cultural institution, that recently celebrated its 30th year of operations, since we opened in 1989. The exhibition will feature panels for framing for interior decorating. All the panels are designed by our members and will be hand-printed in Gunbalanya. Some of the panels will also be available on-line, making them accessible to our customers all over the world. There are only three more Mindil Beach Markets for 2016 (they finish in last Thursday in October) and they've been a big success, sending a giant thank you to Liz Martin. Finally, don't forget Injalak Arts when you're thinking Xmas gifts. We are open until mid December and happy to deal with any inquiries you may have.

At Injalak Arts we're enjoying the change in seasons as we shift into Yekke (cool, dry season). Some of visitors seem fairly warm but we think it's getting a bit chilly - sometimes as low as 18 degrees at night. Visitor numbers are steadily increasing and many people are finding out how easy it is to get a permit and come and visit us independently, to walk around the site, meet artists, watch them at work and learn about Kunwinjku culture. Because of the low rainfall this year Cahills Crossing (near Border Store) is rarely affected by the tide. Our Injalak hill tour guides had a big rest over wet season and have returned to work fresh and the feedback from guests has been great. The screen-print workshop has been going flat out printing for exhibitions, Mindil Beach Markets and local demand. Marrawuddi Gallery at Kakaudu National Park (KNP) headquarters is now stocking some of our products including fabric and fabric products and paintings. It's so good to be represented in the Park once again - as an iconic destination it's a shame so many outlets in KNP stock inauthentic Indigenous product, often made overseas. Some special events: BOOK LAUNCH: From July 1 - 27 2016 an exhibition featuring the Kunwinjku Counting Book suite will be on display at Nomad Art in Parap, Darwin. Gabriel Maralngurra has painted 12 works on Arches paper with animals found in Western Arnhem Land. CUBA EXHIBITION: Two of our artists and Committee Members, Virgil Narlorlman and Roland Burrunali, will be leaving Australia for Cuba next week to present an exhibition called Wearables that was first shown in Darwin. The artworks include paintings, natural fibre weavings, prints and hand-printed fabric. Curated by Liz Martin it will be an education exhibition to share with visitors to the Festival del Caribe to be held in Santiago de Cuba from 3 - 9 July 2016. STAFF ACCOMMODATION: Meanwhile, closer to home, we are delighted that the 'Love Shacks' designed by Troppo Architects and built by Grampian Homes are now finished. These two stunning little buildings with mezzanine bedrooms with a view of Injalak hill and the escarpment have been attracting a lot of attention. Unfortunately we are still waiting for services to be connected and have hit a few glitches getting water to the site - so patience is the buzzword around here.

We didn't have much of a wet season this year, however, the East Alligator River was up until mid-April so the only access until then was light aircraft. Once the river came down we were very pleased to welcome visitors and show off the art centre as we've been continuing upgrades around the place over the wet season. It's been really good to see all our partners again: Kakadu Cultural Tours, Lords Safaris, Venture North and Outback Spirit (so far) and we are always happy to host their guests. Some independent travellers are also finding their way to us :) Mindil Beach Sunset Markets started again at the end of April so if you live in or are transiting through Darwin on a Thursday or Sunday afternoon/evening please go and say hello to Markets Coordinator Liz Martin. She lived and worked in Gunbalanya with us for more than 3 years so has an excellent knowledge of our products and can also explain how to visit - it's not hard! Liz stocks a really wide range of our affordable hand-made arts and crafts including fabrics and accessories and we send in fresh stock weekly so there is an excellent selection. We have a big year planned and expect construction work on the new screenprint workshop and cafe to start before mid-year. Two quirky staff accommodation units designed by Troppo Architects and nick-named the Love Shacks have added some pizzazz to the landscape near the billabong and some of our staff look forward to moving into them once the services are connected. Four of our artists (Selina Nadjowh and Kevin Gameraidj, Lynne Nadjowh and Jonah Djumburri) will be traveling to Guam for the Pacific Festival for the Arts on May 20th - a huge and very exciting trip. More artist travelled is planned for late July. If you're interested we regularly (often daily) update our social media sites, especially facebook and Instagram and that's where you'll get fresh information about what's happening on-site. Hope to see you sometime in 2016!

We've now had the 2016 calendar New Year, then the Chinese New Year of the Monkey and most recently Valentine's Day - and it feels good. We finally sorted out our internet (was down for three weeks) and we're back online. The team is raring to go and full of energy with the calendar already filling up with coming events. Outstation trips commenced this week with some beautiful weavings and paintings coming in from Manmoyi, Mamadawerre and Kabulwarnamyo. Dave, Virgil, Roland and Gabriel did the trip. Have a look at the photos on our facebook page here - this album will be updated regularly. The Construction crew are limbering up and getting things built and painted. We have just called for tenders for our NEW SCREENPRINT WORKSHOP AND CAFE - this one is so exciting. Fingers crossed the build will be finished by the end of dry season. We have exhibitions lined up for Australia and overseas (details coming soon), a diary full of dry season tour operator bookings, a special guest consultant coming in April 2016 to give us advice about the new kitchen/cafe and Mindil Beach Markets gearing up for a start in late April. Of course we have a heap of wonderful fresh stock, paintings, baskets, sculptures, jewellery, fabric, bags etc in the shop ready for the river to come down and visitors to start arriving. We also have publishing projects on the go, an oral history project underway, skills development workshops scheduled ... it's all happening. To follow us more closely with daily updates on activities please like our fb page Injalak Arts Gunbalanya.

Injalak Arts just closed its doors for 2015. We had an absolutely BONZER year - with fantastic sales, lots of successful projects, happy and friendly visitors, visits to outstations, trips, art fairs, exhibitions, workshops and more. We'd like to thank our commercial and government partners and their staff for their support and advocacy including: Outback Spirit; Djabulukgu Association/Kakadu Cultural Tours; Lords Safaris; Venture North; Framed Gallery (Darwin); Nomad Art (Darwin); Aboriginal & Pacific Art (Sydney); Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair; Tarnanthi Festival mob; Kakadu National Park; NT Department of Business; Ministry for the Arts; FRRR; National Library; ABA; PM&C; WASC; GSSC; ANKAAA; and Jobfind. Special thanks to the Cambodian crew: Kravan House; A.N.D. artisandesigners; Villageworks and Tabitha Foundation. Also our trainers, especially Jude, Janie, Scott, Nick and Karen; markets coordinator Adrielle; inhouse designer Amber; website support Marina and architect John Cameron. We look forward to even more fun and great products and services in 2016. LASTLY BUT VERY IMPORTANTLY - THANK YOU to our wonderful customers - your support keep us going, it sustains us. Your purchases motivate our members to keep making arts and crafts - without you we wouldn't have an art centre. We love youse (sic) all. Injalak Arts and on-line store will be open again on 27th January 2016. Stay safe and please play well with others.

You know it's been a bumper year when the last post said 'It's August already' and there hasn't been time to update it since. What can we say about 2015? There have been exhibitions, projects, trips out bush, trips away, commissions, staff arriving and leaving, funerals (too many), record sales and thousands of visitors from all over the world. We've just done our final Darwin Market for the year with an outstanding Saltwater Craft Fair and are now making plans for our pre-Xmas SALE. Meanwhile Gunbalanya is in the full furnace heat of Kurrung the 'build-up' with Kurnumeleng looming and visitors have slowed to a trickle. The river is still easy to cross, the aircons are working and we have cool drinks in the frig so come and visit while you can. Please note Injalak Arts will be closed from 12 December - 27 January 2016.

We are now in the middle of dry season and have been having a fantastic 2015. Too busy to even update our website! Thanks to all our new and old friends who have come to visit in person. Also thanks to those of you who have supported us from afar by either visiting our online store or contacting us direct. In April we launched our Mindil Beach Sunset Market (Darwin) stall that carries a beautiful range of our affordably priced stock - so if you are in Darwin you can shop with us on Thursday and Sunday evenings during the dry season. Early August will see us in Darwin for two big events: an exhibition at Framed Gallery and the annual extravaganza: Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair that runs from 7 - 9 August at Darwin Convention Centre. We look forward to catching up with our friends from around Australia and the world at this wonderful event. September will see us with our own exhibition at Tactile Arts Gallery in Darwin and in October we're going south to Adelaide for the inaugural TARNANTHI Festival and Art Fair. The Art Fair will be open on the 9 & 10th October. We'll keep you posted!             Please don't hesitate to contact us if you are interested in visiting or would like to know more about what we do.

We re-opened at the end of January and are now getting organised for 2015. The Bim Gallery was painted last week and the artists and printers are going great guns. The river is still up and no-one can drive in from Darwin/Jabiru yet. So far it's been a bit of dry 'wet season' but now we're getting lots of rain so will probably see the flood plain fill up - good for the sake of all the turtles and other creatures that like water. Hopefully not as much as 2007 when the art centre was flooded! Now is a GREAT time to contact us about shopping - browse our on-line store and if you don't see exactly what you're looking for contact us direct. Send an email to Liz at info@injalak.com or call her as we have lots of fantastic new wet season stock and no customers in the shop - so let us know what you want. We can respond promptly and send images at this time of the year.

Thanks to our dear family and friends who came and helped us celebrate our 25^th Birthday. Was a really lovely day and we had a feast and lots of entertainment including printing demonstrations and print-your-own t-shirts. Have a look at our FB page for photos from the day – click here. We are still really busy working on a range of projects including producing new brochures about the history and heritage of both painting and pandanus weaving. Also, have a look at our products page – we’re uploading some new stock of bags for Christmas that have just arrived from Cambodia. Order quick as we have very limited stock. Or visit us on site – we’re still open five days a week and the river can be crossed no problems at the moment. When you get here check out our new Interpretive Centre and front signage, funded by Tourism NT. Happy to report all our air-conditioning is working – so you can chill and browse. Letting you all know we’re closing on 12^th December for six weeks and will re-open on 27^th January 2015 so if you want to visit or order, get in quick.

It’s our birthday party on 1st November and preparations are going full steam ahead. Watch as we upload more images on our Facebook page. The team is so excited. Bring your binoculars so you can enjoy the extraordinary world-class views from the Billabong House balcony – overlooking Adjumarllarl billabong and beyond to Injalak Hill and the escarpments of the stone country. Count the crocodiles and the hundreds of birds. While you’re there enjoy a cuppa or cold drink. Don’t forget it will be warm so please bring a sunhat, sunscreen, water bottles and camping chairs if you have some. We will provide some chairs but more would be great. Note: Border Store stops trading for the season this Friday so no chance of hot food, icecream or cold drink on the way through. The ‘big store’ at Injalak has cold drinks and ice creams and (hopefully) hot food but will probably close around 3pm.

Our doors first opened in 1989 - so Injalak Arts is officially turning 25 at the end of this year!! To celebrate we are holding a Birthday Party at the art centre on 1st November 2014. The day will be a celebration with a bush food cook-up, Rock Art Tours, dancing, art and craft demonstrations, art and craft workshops, local bands, discount artworks and more. We'd love you to join us. For our birthday we'll also be launching Online Exhibitions so wherever you are in the world you can enjoy Injalak's creativity. Each month we'll present a curated feature exhibition on our website showcasing top quality artworks (held in stock) by some of our established and emerging artists. This gives us the opportunity to share contemporary artworks with our domestic and international audience and you can stay up-to-date with what's happening at the art centre. For updates about both events please follow us on Facebook and twitter.

We’ve just had three fantastic months of visitors from all over the world coming across the river to our art centre during the Top End dry season with barely time to draw breath. It’s always an excellent time to catch up with visiting partners and welcome travelers.  In August we went west to meet old and new friends at Darwin Aboriginal Art Fair for three intense, colorful and very successful days of trading. Thanks to everyone who came to support us. Don’t forget, the river will still be down for another 3-4 or so months so plenty of time to make plans to visit us and our world-class Rock Art Tours will continue to be available! Recently posted on Trip Advisor by a fan from California USA:  “The art center is as good as anything you will see anywhere, the prices cheap, the diversity and quality of art outstanding and the staff extremely friendly and helpful. It is a rare privilege to be able to talk to the friendly artists outside and in the back. I have been to many similar art and culture centers, but this is the best I have seen. Kakadu is absolutely unique in the world and for me the Gunblanya/Injalak day was the best part of a long Kakadu trip. It was a rare privilege to visit!”

Finally our new website is here!! A lot easier to navigate, and with a lot more information on the region, the culture, the people and of course the art, we hope you enjoy the site as much as we do. Don’t forget to check out the new Online Store section where we now have our exquisite hand-printed fabrics and fabric products available on-line for the first time. You will also find even more paintings on bark and paper, fibre artworks, and limited edition prints. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

The annual and prestigous NATSIAA (National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards) are certainly not to be taken lightly, with 306 entries and up to 80 artists selected for final exhibition. Competition is tough and Injalak Arts is proud to be represented by senior artist Don Namundja, and emerging artist Allan Nadjamerrek. Check out www.facebook.com/telstraartawards for more info and exhibition dates.

The late wet season (bangkerreng) is teasing us this year, with Cahill’s Crossing over East Alligator river going down for a brief moment in April allowing visitors to cross over to Gunbalanya. However the rains came again halting all traffic for a few weeks, but we can safely say now the river is down and the road is open. So come on over for a visit - we’d love to see you!