Ngurra Kuju Walyja – One Country, One People: The Canning Stock Route Project (CSR Project) is a landmark cultural and artistic endeavour in Western Australia. Some of the State’s leading contemporary Aboriginal artists have contributed their knowledge to a rich cultural repository exploring the history and cultures of the Canning Stock Route. The Project comprises contemporary art, oral history, photography, film and interactive multimedia, a touring exhibition and a professional development program.
FORM instigated the CSR Project in mid 2006 and brokered unique partnerships with nine art centres including Tjukurba Gallery, Martumili Artists, Yulparija Artists, Mangkaja Artists, Ngurra Artists, Paruku IPA, Warlayirti Artists, Papunya Tula and Kayili Artists and communities with direct connections to the stock route region. These partnerships developed through creative workshops, return to Country trips, community visits and a six-week, 1800km journey from Wiluna to Billiluna with artists from seven of the nine art centres. From its inception, the Project’s cardinal points have remained the same, to: record and share the vibrancy of desert life today, connect Aboriginal creativity and history with new audiences, enhance the skills of Aboriginal professionals and create new, cross-cultural, multi- disciplinary channels for collaboration between remote and urban.
