Tjanpi Desert Weavers

Tjanpi Desert Weavers is a social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council that enables women living in the remote Central and Western Desert regions to earn an income from fibre art. Tjanpi (meaning desert grass) represents more than 400 Aboriginal women artists from 26 communities on the NPY lands.

Tjanpi embodies the energies and rhythms of Country, culture and community. Women regularly come together to collect grass, taking the time to hunt, gather food, perform inma (cultural song and dance) and teach young women about Country while creating an ever-evolving array of fibre artworks. The shared stories, skills and experiences of this wide-reaching network of mothers, daughters, aunties, sisters and grandmothers form the bloodline of the desert weaving phenomenon and have fuelled Tjanpi’s rich history of collaborative practice.

Tjanpi Desert Weavers represent more than 400 women artists who capture the rhythms of country and culture as they collect and use tjanpi (desert grasses) to create fibre art.