In Australia, Remote Desert Art Meets Luxury Desert Glamping at Uluru
Australia's Uluru attracts visitors, but it's a female-led Aboriginal art program that's boosting the lives of Indigenous women.
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A tradition of desert arts
Arriving at the lodge, my eyes are instantly drawn to the spectacular artworks. Huge canvasses adorn the walls, colourful interpretations of desert life, like water holes or baby birds, in the dot painting style that is synonymous with Central Australia.
Other works include ceramic vessels from coffee cup size to large vase size, carefully etched with patterns that tell stories of the world’s oldest continuous living culture. On one wall hangs a collection of spears, and behind the bar, a wall of 500 handmade ceramic tiles ground this space into its earthy, ancient environment.
When Baillie Lodges (now called Beckons) purchased this lodge in 2013, co-founder Hayley Baillie became the first cog in a female-led art wheel. Hayley commissioned artworks and established a meaningful collaboration with Ernabella Arts, Australia’s oldest Indigenous art centre. Ernabella is incredibly remote; a three-hour drive from Uluru on unsealed roads, with entry to the community by permit only.
Ernabella Arts started in 1948 and was part of a Christian mission. Initially, the centre was a craft room for Indigenous Anangu women, who adapted their skills of weaving wallaby fur and human hair into weaving sheep wool rugs and wall hangings.
The art centre is now a proudly Indigenous owned and operated business, and the artists are women and men of all ages. It provides a mechanism for Anangu to connect with their own culture and a powerful sense of purpose.
Each year since 2016 Longitude 131° has donated A$50,000 towards funding a dedicated ceramics teacher, who lives at Ernabella. This program has seen the art centre’s ceramics sales peaking at more than A$300,000 a year.
Beyond just a feel-good exercise, this is also a business partnership. Longitude 131° purchases art from Ernabella Art, with money being paid to Ernabella immediately. The lodge then on-sells the works, with canvas paintings ranging in price from A$6,500 to A$15,000. Ceramics are sold for up to A$12,500. Some of the most valued artists here are women.
