The Spinifex Arts Project was established in 1997 by traditional owners of Spinifex Country known as the Spinifex People. Painting began initially to record and document ownership of the Spinifex area within the Great Victoria Desert WA in the lead up to the successful Spinifex Native Title claim 55 000 sq km of country. Major collaborative works by men and women were enthusiastically painted in keeping with the shared history and culture of this small group and were used in the preamble to the Native Title claim. These collaborative works painted in country have become signature pieces for the Spinifex Arts Project.

The Spinifex People are responsible for several renowned Western Desert stories that traverse the land area and such ownership requires frequent visits, ritual obligations and close adherence to traditional cultural protocols. Painting country is intimately connected with these cultural protocols and is a way of maintaining culture, and promoting culture within the western desert and the wider community.

Spinifex men and women are renowned for collaborative works where men and women will work separately. The women often paint the Seven Sisters Tjukurpa (story), a major Western Desert story that runs through a lot of Spinifex country. The Men more often paint stories pertaining to men and Men's business such as the Kipara story (the Bustard Man), Wati Kutjarra (the Two Men) and Wati Kuniya (Python man). Tjukurpa are complex and multi layered and in each case only public aspects of a story are allowed to be painted. During collaborative painting much discussion, banter and song occurs in the initial phase.

Individual paintings allow artists to develop a unique style in relation to the country they are painting, which is always either their own or their parent's country. Whilst the women love a multi-coloured palette, the men often have a restricted palette of two to three colours.

The Spinifex people are keen to share their culture through painting and produce works of high quality which are keenly sought after both nationally and internationally. Spinifex works are in major collections in Australia and overseas. The Spinifex Arts Project also documents work on film, video and audio equipment archived in an ongoing community-based database.