About us
The main role of Mangkaja Arts Resource Agency Aboriginal Association is to relieve poverty, helplessness, distress, suffering and cultural loss. The reason why the centre was formed was to develop training programs which would assist its members in improving day to day and longer term living conditions through :
* the encouragement of traditional art and artefact production
* teaching older and younger members about new ways to make art
* to work in with training programs in communities
* to get money for artists through the promotion of local art and
artefacts
* to publish material relating to local culture which is useful in the
immediate community, so that people feel better about themselves
* to help the young people learn about running the art centre
* to teach all of the members about legal matters such as copyright
* to make sure people are paid fairly for their work
* to work with all the communities in the Fitzroy Valley
* to bring people from other communities for cultural exchanges
* to work towards establishing a museum locally for Fitzroy Valley
people

Location
Fitzroy Crossing is situated on the Great Northern Highway, on the banks of the Fitzroy River. It is approximately 2524 km from Perth and 400 km from Broome. The town is 114 metres above sea level and is surrounded by the vast floodplains of the Fitzroy River. The current population of the Fitzroy Crossing area is approximately 1200 people, most of whom are Aboriginal. Within the Fitzroy Valley there are four main Aboriginal language groups, Gooniyandi, Bunuba, Walmajarri and Wangkajungka. Fitzroy Crossing also services over thirty small, remote Aboriginal communities and outstations that are situated in the Valley. This region of the Kimberley is currently the subject of intense development pressures, including proposals to dam the Fitzroy River and tributaries, for the cultivation of cotton and other cash crops.

The region is characterized by a semi-arid monsoonal climate, with marked Wet and Dry Seasons. Local Aboriginal people recognize more than these two seasons. The vegetation of the region features riverine eucalyptus woodlands, savannah grasslands (which are frequently burned during the Dry Season) and pockets of fire-sensitive flora in spectacular limestone ranges formed from an ancient coral reef system, 350 million years ago during the Devonian Period. To the south of Fitzroy Crossing lies a vast region of jila (springs) and jilji (sand dunes), known to Europeans as the Great Sandy Desert. Many Mangkaja members have traditional connections to this region. The local Aboriginal people regularly use the natural resources of these areas, gathering jarramba (a freshwater crustacean), fish, native turkey, goanna and many varieties of plant food e.g., the artist Butcher Cherel has painted (2004) girndi, a sweet black fruit found in the region.

Take care when driving on the roads of the Kimberley.

“Girndi” – Butcher Cherel, 2004