At the end of the 1990s, the aborigines of the Western Desert decided to take things into their own hands to help members of the community affected by kidney disease. The artist cooperatPapunya Tula donated four collaborative paintings, which were sold for around 800,000 € at an art auction in the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney in November 2000. With this money, they founded a charitable organization called Western Desert Nganampa Walytja Palyantjaku Tjutaku Aboriginal Corporation (wdnwpt), which roughly translated means “Making all our families well”.
Since then, wdnwpt has been busy improving the situation of patients with kidney disease. Sarah Brown is the good spirit behind wdnwpt’s activities. For many years now she has been working in the outback. “I like the country’s more remote regions and to work with Aboriginal people to improve the lives of their families is a real honor,” she says.
Since wdnwpt was founded, the number of dialysis patients has increased steadily. And the problems are growing, too. “The aborigines have a strong bond with their communities and the place where they live,” confirms the truck manager. In the past, the Pintupi led a nomadic life at one with nature. Even today in their villages, they prefer to sleep outdoors, under the stars. So, when they are obliged to be in the city, confined to a small room in a residential home, they also suffer psychologically,” as Sarah Brown observes on a daily basis.