Painters cross the country in Newcastle connection with the South Australian desert

Sisters Anyupa Nelson and Angela Watson at Nobbys Beach last week. The South Australian desert artists liked what they saw last week in Newcastle, calling it 'ninti' country, or 'good'. Picture by Max Mason-Hubers

A YEAR has passed since Newcastle artist Eila Vinwynn took up a contract to run the Ninuku Arts Centre in the tiny South Australian town of Kalka, a few kilometres away from the junction of the SA, Northern Territory and Western Australian borders.

Kalka and the larger nearby hamlet of Pipalyatjara are within an Indigenous area known as the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara or APY Lands.