Ernabella, Hermannsberg and the Tiwi Islands potteries have held joint exhibitions before but this is the first time artists from the remote communities have spent an extended time together in a series of workshops to network, share skills and exchange ideas. This exhibition of remote indigenous communities' ceramics is a snapshot of the ongoing interactions between them.

Each community has a strong individual ceramic identity with professional profiles based around their distinctive works. The Tiwi islands have been producing ceramics since the early 1970's, initially at Nguiu at Tiwi Designs and later at the newer pottery at Munupi Arts and Crafts at Pulurumpi.  Hermannsburg potters have been working for 13-14 years and Ernabella for the past 5-6 years.

At the National Ceramics Conference in Brisbane in 2006 ceramic artists from all three communities attended and presented exhibitions. From this grew the idea for the series of workshops that would give them time to develop the connections that urban based artists take for granted.

In May 2008 Michael Evans and Ngunytjima Carroll, two men from Ernabella, travelled to the Tiwi Islands to work with the potters there, where different hand building techniques are used to produce pots. The Ernabella men use coiling in plaster moulds and slab building to form the canvas upon which the women do their cultural mark making. For two weeks they made pots with several of the ceramic artists from Tiwi Designs and Munupi Arts and Crafts, sharing making techniques and different cultural mark making. The Tiwi men use some hand building techniques to produce sculptures as well as the pottery wheel. Decorative patination is based upon "Jilamara" or body painting of the Tiwi people.

In April 2009 Robert Puruntatameri and John Patrick Kelantumama from the Tiwi Islands made a return visit to Ernabella to work with both the men and the women artists. They were joined by two ceramic artists from Hermannsburg, Lindy Rontji and Judith Inkamala for two weeks.

At the end of the two weeks, eight artists travelled to Canberra and the ANU to spend time making ceramics in a more structured environment. The artists from the Tiwi islands and Hermannsburg were joined by the Ernabella artists Linda Stanley, Inawintji Stanley, Hudson Alison and Ngunytjima Carroll.

This program would not have been possible without the financial support from the Australia Council, Rio Tinto Aboriginal Foundation, South Australian Government, Ceramics Workshop at the ANU and the individual art centres.

The ceramics in the exhibition have all been produced during this communal time.