A Lutheran Church mission founded Hermannsburg in 1877.  European artists introduced landscape painting in watercolour in the 1930’s.  One of the most famous artists of that era was Albert Namatjira.  He painted in a Western style but the works were of sites that were important to him. Papunya was named after one of his earliest works titled "Pupanyi”.

The Lutheran missionaries helped to gather the Aboriginal people from the Desert and to assist with the establishment of Papunya in the 1950’s.