TJANPI DESERT WEAVERS

Tjanpi (meaning grass) began as a series of basket-weaving workshops held on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands in Western Australia by the NPY Women’s Council in 1995. Women needed meaningful and appropriate employment on their homelands to improve life for their families.

In 2005, just ten years after the first basket making workshops were held Tjanpi Desert Weavers was awarded the most prestigious national award for Indigenous art, the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA) for Tjanpi Toyota, a life size sculpture of a Toyota made from grass. Baskets and sculptures made by Tjanpi artists are represented in major public and private collections and showcased through an annual interstate exhibition program.

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