Pintupi-Luritja

Pintupi-Luritja is a Western Desert Pama-Nyungan language, spoken by around 1,000 people in the central Australian desert communities of Papunya, Mt Liebig, and Kintore Walungurru in the Northern Territory. The Pintupi are best known internationally as the homeland of the Papunya Tula Artists movement, which began in 1971 when senior Pintupi artists at Papunya pioneered the modern Western Desert dot-painting style that has become globally recognized as Aboriginal contemporary art. The language is the easternmost variety of the Western Desert cluster, mutually intelligible with Pitjantjatjara (pjt) but with distinctive Luritja-language features that reflect long contact with Arrernte. The Pintupi Nine, the last "uncontacted" Pintupi family, emerged from the Gibson Desert at Kiwirrkurra in 1984 — the last documented case of Aboriginal Australians making first European contact in modern times.