Deutscher and Hackett

Dianne Ungukalpi Golding's work was included in History Paintings, 2011, and History Paintings Part 2 (Outstation Art from Art Centres), featuring narrative historical works of Warakurna artists. The National Museum of Australia acquired many of these works for its permanent collection. The current work came from the second exhibition.

Karrku Adventure Camp is a radiantly joyous evocation of an outreach facility organized by the Western Australian Police and the Ngaanyatjarra Council and supported by Ngaanyatjarra School, Ngaanyatjarra Shire Youth Officers, Ngaanyatjarra Sexual Health, DCP and NPY Women's Council. But the painting's naive-realist style together with its irresistible comic touches mask the painting's deeper concerns: the camp's aim is to care for troubled teenagers and encourage them to go to school. The burlesque jollity of the tiny figures peering in wonder from their dorm windows therefore reflexively alludes to the spectre of cross-cultural disruption, identity trauma, and inter-generational dislocation and pain. Karrku Adventure Camp must therefore be read as much more than a delightful picture postcard: it is testament to the nurturing intimacy of a mother's vision, and more generally, women's culture as palliative restorative agency.