Papunya’s Pintupi-Luritja readers go on show at the National Library

A landmark collection of bilingual books created in the remote Northern Territory community of Papunya is being showcased in a new National Library of Australia exhibition that highlights the community’s decades-long work to keep language and culture alive through education and storytelling.

The exhibition, Wangka Wakaṉutja: The Story of the Papunya Literature Production Centre, opens to the public on 4 April and brings together drawings, photographs, manuscripts and oral histories tracing the work of the Papunya Literature Production Centre (PLPC), which operated from 1979 to 1990.

During that decade, the PLPC produced hundreds of Pintupi-Luritja readers – illustrated books created as literacy tools for local schoolchildren and guided by Papunya Elders. The stories range from accounts of first contact and community life to Dreamings, plants and animals, reflecting the way knowledge is shared on Country and passed on through generations.

National Library materials describe Papunya, in the Western Desert region, as the birthplace of the internationally known Western Desert art movement. Many of the readers were illustrated by artists from that movement, and the exhibition positions the books not only as teaching resources but as a literary and artistic record of language in use.

The exhibition has been co-curated with Papunya community members, including artists and educators who have worked to preserve and share the material. Priscilla Brown, a Papunya woman and co-curator, said the exhibition was part of building a cultural library for those who will inherit the stories. “It is important for the young ones to know, especially when we get older, the children can take it on” she said.

The title Wangka Wakaṉutja – Pintupi-Luritja for “the story has been told” – also reflects the project’s emphasis on community authorship and control. The National Library notes the books belong to Papunya authors, their families and the community.

A key feature of the exhibition is the recovery and preservation journey. The readers were produced for local classrooms, later packed away for long periods, then painstakingly catalogued and conserved so they could be protected while remaining connected to the place they were made. The Library says it received more than 350 Papunya readers under legal deposit provisions, and many have since been digitised for access through Trove.

The Library has issued a cultural advisory notice, warning the material may include images, voices and names of people who have died and other culturally sensitive content – a reminder that public access to community archives carries responsibilities as well as opportunities.