As told by Alawa Aboriginal Art Gallery Owner, Edna Iles.

I have always wanted a small Aboriginal Art Gallery and the desire to have one was far too great to contain. My Husband, William, encouraged me to enquire about a small building to start our small art business. Not long after we moved into the small but suitable building in the main street of Tennant Creek, Northern Territory, and the dream was born.

We are the founders and owners of Alawa Aboriginal Art Gallery.
The name Alawa comes from my Language group from Minyerri and Ngukurr in the Northern Territory.

Before getting the business registered in the name of Alawa I spoke with one of the elders who is my elderly uncle; this was done out of respect to get permission to use the name Alawa. He has since passed away, and was one of the few older lore men in the region.

In the future we are hoping to get more artworks from the Alawa people to exhibit, but we, the Alawa people, are very new to the art world except for one or two who have made a name for themselves, (I won’t mention their names without their permission), and haven’t had the opportunity others have had to present their art to the world.

My husband and I are always on the lookout for good quality artists either in the Barkley region or other parts of Australia and hopefully from my homeland Minyerri NT.

Alawa Aboriginal Art Gallery is a family owned and operated small business. I (Edna Iles) am an older Aboriginal women and my homeland is Hodgson Downs Community (Minyerri) in the Northern Territory of Australia. My husband and I work with many Aboriginal people from several different communities.

We are committed to providing our customers with high quality artwork only. In selecting Aboriginal art for our Gallery and the Website we are looking for quality art, artwork that is painted with care and understanding of their cultural heritage. We are looking for stories that connect the artists to their homeland, cultural lifestyle and dreamtime stories.

We hope to build a good relationship with all of our customers whether they live in the same region or getting to know them through our website. We have built good relationships with the Aboriginal Artists who come through the Alawa Aboriginal Art Gallery and we will continue to build that rapport with them.

We invite you to come on the Alawa Aboriginal Art Journey with us as we grow and see new artists and styles developing before us.