Ampilatwatja is a small community in the

Northern Territory The Northern Territory (abbreviated as NT; known formally as the Northern Territory of Australia and informally as the Territory) is an states and territories of Australia, Australian internal territory in the central and central-northern regi ...

of Australia located northeast of

Alice Springs Alice Springs () is a town in the Northern Territory, Australia; it is the third-largest settlement after Darwin, Northern Territory, Darwin and Palmerston, Northern Territory, Palmerston. The name Alice Springs was given by surveyor William ...

Governance and description

Ampilatwatja is administered by the Barkly Regional Council and is within the

Utopia A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia (book), Utopia'', which describes a fictiona ...

aboriginal homeland. The community has a school and the Ampilatwatja Health Centre. There have been ongoing infrastructure issues affecting the community for years, including water quality, internet and mobile access, as well as road access issues.

Demographics

Ampilatwatja lies within the land of the Alyawarre people. As of 2021 there were 515 people, with a median age of 24. 90.4% of residents were Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people. There were 77 households and 82% spoke Alyawarr language at home.

Art

Artists of Ampilatwatja is an art centre, founded in 1999. The paintings produced by the artists are distinctive, "due to the application of fine dots and the often bright and child-like figurative depiction of the land". Most of the artists paint ''Arreth'', meaning "strong

bush medicine Bush medicine comprises traditional medicines used by Indigenous Australians, being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Indigenous people have been using various components of native Australian flora and some fauna as medicine for t ...

", showing their deep

connection to country The Indigenous peoples of Australia, that is Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islander people, have strong and complex relationships with the concept of "Country" (often capitalised). In this sense it does not refer to the nation of A ...

References

Populated places in the Northern Territory Barkly Region {{NorthernTerritory-geo-stub