In attempting to understand the art of the desert, it is important to know what underlies its production. Put precisely by Tim Rollason, in his Directors Foreword for Desert Mob 2010, "making artwork is having country in mind, where the importance of keeping country strong is the fundamental mantra underlying the production of art".

These works are about country. From the bush medicine leaves of Utopia, 270km northwest of Alice Springs, represented by Patricia Kamara to Matthew Milton's Cotton Creek, in Tjukurla land on the Western Australian and Northern Territory border- preserving the stories and history of their land is the central theme which runs through all these artists' works.