The missionaries, however, had made them ashamed of their traditions. A teacher, Geoffrey Bardon, changed this and ignited a creative explosion. In 1971, Mr. Bardon had come to Papunya, northwest of Alice Springs, one of a number of inhospitable settlements where whites were to teach Aboriginals to assimilate. Mr. Bardon asked his students to create a school mural depicting a mythological event using the traditional iconography. They didn't know the symbols, so some Pintupi elders finished it.
Many women there continue to do batik, producing designs on silk and cotton.
Some moved to acrylics in a style related to body painting. Two from the original group are the aforementioned Emily and Gloria Petyarre. Emily, the most brilliant of several outstanding women painters, broke with tradition while also keeping the old alive. People who watched her were amazed with the speed at which she worked and in awe of her sense of connection with the earth. For example, the color of her paintings changed from green in the spring to brown in the fall.