Parrtjima’s much-loved Grounded installation returns in 2025. Grounded is an interactive projection of animated artworks by established and emerging Central Australian artists. The festival will also include several new installations designed to represent the theme of Timelessness.

Sand art and ritualistic ceremony were carried out by most First Nations groups across Australia using their own specific markings and stories of county.

The difference in the Central and Western desert regions is that, by the 1970s, this practice became a modern-day art movement that used new mediums to capture and depict those ancient stories and sand ceremonies.

Such rituals were often linked to the gathering of neighbouring clans, continuing a deep-rooted connection to Country, the seasons and the importance of ensuring lore and story were told to the next generation. A deeper layer to the story added complexity and depth, as artists entered the rites of passage at different stages of their lives.

Grounded is an echo of the sand ceremonies enacted seasonally in Aboriginal culture, portrayed by diverse Aboriginal artworks animated and projected on to the red sands of Alice Springs Desert Park. Grounded is like a magical carpet spreading across the desert floor that beckons us all to come and play in the sand, to become part of those ancient stories.