Returning to Mparntwe/Alice Springs this September, Desert Mob stands as a vital marker on the national cultural calendar—the longest-running Aboriginal art event after the Telstra NATSIAAs, and one of the most fiercely community-driven. Now in its 34th year, the festival brings together 35 art centres from across Central Australia, under the curatorial stewardship of Hetti Perkins and Aspen Beattie, to celebrate the strength, innovation, and cultural leadership of desert artists and their communities.
The festival continues to uphold its artist-led ethos. As Beattie explains, “There is a real focus on artist-led and run projects.” A highlight is the proliferation of works on paper, including a monumental collaborative work by 12 artists from the Northern Territory’s Barkly region, led by artist and arts worker Kathleen Nanima Rambler. Comprising 10 paper panels, the work forms a vibrant cartography of desert wildflowers and native plants, rendered in intricate dotting, layered linework and radiant colours. Rambler reflects: “We all drew our own flowers and leaves, placing them together…while the artists worked, they had big talks about community matters, old time stories and bush tucker stories, how the black berries would be out soon and how delicious they are. There were laughs and big stories about old family stories, ceremony, business, and dancing.”
Other highlights include Warlukurlangu Artists of Yuendumu, celebrating their 40th anniversary, and Mimili Maku’s Wati men’s group with bold experiments in troopy tyre printing. A painted work on salvaged kerosene tin by the oldest member of the artist cohort, Topsy Kemarre Steppa-Beasley, graces the cover of the catalogue. “Desert Mob is among the most eagerly anticipated and well attended events by artists of all ages from all over Central Australia,” notes Perkins.
Desert Mob is a critical platform for the cultural and creative authority of desert artists, with artists driving new ways of making, collaborating and innovating on their own terms, ensuring cultural knowledge is not just maintained but continually expanded through practice.
Desert Mob 2025
Araluen Arts Cultural Precinct
11 September—26 October
This article was originally published in the September/October 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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