A national mental health symbol has been reinterpreted on the Ngaanyatjarra Lands, with Anangu and Yarnangu women creating a tjanpi (grass) blue tree to open up conversations about wellbeing in a culturally meaningful way.
The initiative began as a conversation during a long car journey between Mparntwe/Alice Springs and Warakurna, a remote community in Western Australia.
Along the way, the women passed a blue-painted tree at Curtin Springs — part of the national Blue Tree Project, which encourages communities to paint a dead tree blue as a visible prompt to talk about mental health.
That sighting sparked an idea.
A group of Anangu and Yarnangu women from the Uti Kulintjaku team at the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council began discussing how the concept could be reshaped to reflect their own cultural understandings of mental health.
Rather than painting a tree, the women worked with Tjanpi Desert Weavers to create a woven blue tree from tjanpi — native grass traditionally used in fibre art.
NPY Women's Council said the idea was about "reinterpreting this initiative beyond the Western understanding of the tree, and of mental health more broadly, into a way that resonates with Anangu and Yarnangu".
The phrase guiding the project — "Punu ngaanya mirritjanu warngkaringu", meaning "the dead tree comes to life again" — speaks to renewal and recovery.
The women described the journey from a state of hopelessness — walykurringu — to hope and healing, nyaakula kuranyukutu, and returning to happiness, marlaku palyaringkupayi mapalyarringu.
Organisers say the physical act of making the tree was itself healing, providing space for reflection and shared conversation.
The woven tree has since been taken into Ngaanyatjarra schools, where students are invited to create leaves to hang from its branches — symbols of regrowth and strength.
Through meditation and storytelling, the interactive process aims to reinforce the message that healing is possible.
The organisation says it hopes the tree will continue to travel across communities on the NPY Lands, sparking dialogue and bridging cultural understandings of mental health.
"With the aim to spark conversations about mental health across communities, the Blue Tree Project has been reimagined by Anangu and Yarnangu women with deep, cultural meaning," the organisation said.
The project brings together art, language and lived experience, reframing a national campaign through a local lens — one that centres culture as a foundation for wellbeing.
