After much discussion among the tribal elders, Old Tom Onion Tjapangati gave permission for his 'Honey Ant Dreaming' story to be used as the subject of the mural and Kaapa Tjampitjinpa, a former stockman, was put in charge of the project, assisted by Long Jack Tjakamarra and Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. When he proposed the idea for a Papunya School mural featuring a traditional design, he discovered that his students could not participate, as only the older men in the community had the authorisation to paint their ancestral designs. In his desire to record the ephemeral nature of this art, which was either washed, trampled or blown away after the event, Barton encouraged his students to commit these symbols to the more permanent medium of synthetic polymer paints (acrylics). As an artist he was intrigued by the 'dot and circle' designs he saw in Aboriginal body painting and sand drawings.
In order to gain the trust of the various indigenous groups, Bardon integrated socially with the community and immersed himself in their language and culture. In 1971, Geoffrey Bardon, a graduate from the National Art School in Sydney, took up a post as a primary school teacher in the remote government settlement at Papunya, about 150 miles northwest of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory.