Hand Painted Sherrin Football

Keringke Art Centre is situated in the community of Ltyentye Apurte in the Central Australian region of the Northern Territory. The community was named for the stand of bloodwood trees that grow at the foot of hills to the west. Keringke Arts was named after an important and ancient rock-hole nearby that was formed when an ancestor Kangaroo travelled through the country. Several of the Keringke Artists have responsibilities associated with the Keringke Rockhole site.

Keringke Art Centre began with a nine week fabric-painting course back in 1987. In 1988 the women of Santa Teresa held an exhibition in at Australian Bicentennial Craft Show, the first time an Aborginal group had done so. By 1989, ATSIC funding had allowed the building of a purpose-built Art Centre. It was named after the Dreaming place of Kathleen Wallace, one of the artists at Santa Teresa. Keringke means ‘Kangaroo Tracks’. It is Kangaroo Dreaming.

The Centre quickly became an influential model for other art projects in the area, and in 1992 a cultural exchange program saw the group exhibiting in New Zealand. Despite widespread funding cuts to Art Centres during the 90’s, Keringke has flourished in recent times and is now a vital component of the area’s cultural, social and economic fabric.