As Edith Imantura Richards grew older, she worried generations of knowledge would die with her.
The Mutitjulu elder was one of the first central Australian bushrangers, working closely with the land and animals around Uluru National Park.
The Ngiyari (thorny devil) is one of her favourites, and in a desperate effort to pass on her love and knowledge of the animal, she enlisted local artists Rolley Mintuma and Pixie Brown along with 20 schoolchildren to create a giant sculpture of the creature.
"All the kids love the Ngiyari, the tourists love them, everyone loves them," she told AAP.
"And I'm sharing that knowledge with everyone now, including the young rangers."
But the giant thorny devil, made from wire and offcuts and meticulously painted by Mutitjulu mothers and grandmothers, may soon have a new home.
After a five-hour journey from Uluru to Alice Springs, the sculpture has become a centrepiece of the 2023 Desert Mob art fair, priced at almost $10,000.
Art collectors lined up for more than eight hours to snap up paintings and sculptures from one of the 34 central Australian art centres featured in this year's festival.
Suzie and Arthur Roe were second in line when doors opened, snagging more than five works and spending almost $50,000 to add to their private art collection in Melbourne.
"Truly serious art collectors never go around in flash cars," Arthur Roe told AAP on Thursday evening.
"They'd never waste their money on anything but art."
The Roes are among a handful of serious art collectors who have been coming to Desert Mob since its foundation in 1993.
While the collectors are mostly wealthy and white, the money they spend is a lifeline for the remote art centres and the communities they serve.
"Desert Mob is by and for desert mob," curator Hetti Perkins said.
"Art centres play an instrumental role in the continuing on of culture."
For the Roes, who were mulling over a sixth purchase on Friday morning, Indigenous art tells the strongest stories.
"Once you get a really good understanding of the soul and meaning behind Indigenous art, you look at white art very differently," Mr Roe said.
Desert Mob will run until October 22 at Araluen Arts Centre in Alice Springs.
