Trudy Nyurpaya Holland Smythe green and yellow Tjanpi basket

A colourful basket woven by Trudy Nyurpaya Holland Smythe, a Ngaanyatjarra artist living in Warakurna, WA, as part of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers collective.

Made using grass and raffia, the wide and shallow basket has a green and yellow outer, with a vibrant green, purple, pink and yellow design on the inside, as well as the natural colour of the grasses. The handcrafted 30 x 5 cm basket is both a decorative artwork and a functional basket, allowing you to use it as a bowl or for display.

Trudy Nyurpaya Holland Smythe is an artist belonging to the Ngaanyatjarra language and cultural group and lives in the remote community of Warakurna, WA. Trudy primarily focuses on depicting local Central Desert animals and traditional artefact-shapes using the traditional Tjanpi materials of wool, raffia and Minarri grass. Trudy is part of an incredibly Artistic family, with both her mother Nora Holland and daughter Ms Smythe, well-known Tjanpi Artists. Speaking about her weaving practice, Trudy said ‘It’s good to sit down and do it’.

Following her career at the Warakurna Women’s Centre, Trudy became an acrylic painter, and only took up weaving in 2015 when her daughter Dallas won the Port Hedland Art Prize with a Tjanpi artwork. Trudy attributes a large part of her weaving knowledge to her daughter, who taught her to weave during relaxed evenings at home, and at a Tjanpi Desert Weavers skills workshop in 2015. Trudy also facilitates her mother’s weaving, bringing her raffia and grass to the Kalgoorlie aged-care facility where Nora now lives. Tjanpi Desert Weavers (Tjanpi meaning ‘wild grass’) is an award-winning, Indigenous governed and directed social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra, Pitjantjatjara and Yankunytjatjara Women’s Council (NPYWC). Tjanpi empowers over 400 women across a 350,000 square km area of the tri-state region of NT, SA and WA to earn an income and remain in their communities on Country.

The basket is part of our shop collection celebrating Anmatyerr artist from Alhalker Country in the Northern Territory, Australia, Emily Kam Kngwarray.

• Artist Trudy Nyurpaya
• Dimensions 30 x 5 cm
• Material Tjanpi grass, Raffia
• ISBN 30610