Desert Mob brings 183 Aboriginal artists to Alice Springs for 35-year-old
Desert Mob, one of Australia's longest-running First Nations art events, showcases 183 artists from 32 Central Australian art centres.
Desert Mob opened this week in Alice Springs, drawing hundreds of Aboriginal artists from remote communities. The festival, running for 35 years, combines exhibitions, talks and a busy art market.
This year's Vincent Lingiari Art Award went to artist Elizabeth Ngwarraye Bonney, whose work depicts her grandmother's Country and her mother's 40-year land claim fight. Curator Hetti Perkins describes Country not as property but as family, with ancestral connections running through every artwork.
The festival also tackled environmental issues, with artists from Iltja Ntjarra turning invasive buffel grass into paper, then painting native plants that the grass now chokes out. Aboriginal art centres support artists with ceremonies, bush trips and funeral services, keeping culture alive across Central Australia.
- 183
- Artists represented
- 32
- Art centres
- 35
- Festival years running
- 40 years
- Mother's land claim duration
Why it mattersHighlights how Aboriginal art carries culture, documents land rights struggles and responds to environmental threats affecting Indigenous communities.
AustraliaMajor cultural event in Alice Springs supporting remote Aboriginal artists and communities, with money flowing directly back to art centres when people buy.
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