HILDA NAKAMARRA ROGERS
Hilda Nakamarra Rogers was born in Papunya, an Aboriginal community located 240 km northwest of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She attended her local school in Papunya before going to Yirara College in Alice Springs. After college she returned to Papunya and worked at the school teaching language. Hilda married a man from Yuendumu in 1987 and moved to Yuendumu, a neighboring community to Papunya where many of the same families live. Later she moved to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community approximately 160 km west of Yuendumu where she still lives. She is married to Desmond Williams and they have two sons, Micah and Eliezer. She also has a granddaughter who Hilda enjoys looking after. Both her parents are deceased and were artists at Papunya. As a child she watched her parents paint and listened to their stories. Hilda paints Bush tucker stories, in particular Ngurlu Jukurrpa (Native Seed Dreaming). Occasionally she paints her husband’s dreaming, Yurrumpi Jukurrpa (Honey Ant Dreaming) and her father’s dreaming, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), Dreamings which have been passed down through the generations for millennia.
MURDIE NAMPIJINPA MORRIS
Murdie (Maudie) Nampijinpa Morris was born in the 1930s at Rabbit Flat, a tiny settlement in the middle of the harsh Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory of Australia about 160 km from the Western Australia border and 315 km north-west of Yuendumu. Her parents would have taken her out bush in around Nyirripi area, showing her sites and teaching her the traditional ways of her country. In the early 1980s she settled in Yuendumu and worked at the Old People’s Home - a Program that cares for the elderly by helping them when they are sick, and being with them when they are alone or when they are frightened during storms. She was married but is now a widowed woman. She never had children.
Murdie enjoys painting, and paints her father’s jukurrpa, Maliki Jukurrpa (Domestic Dog Dreaming) and Malikijarra Jukurrpa (Two Dog Dreaming). Dreamings that have been passed down through the generations for millennia and relate directly to the land, its features and the animals and plants that inhabit it. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.
SHANNA NAPANANGKA WILLIAMS
Shanna Napanangka Williams was born in 1988 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Shanna is the great grand-daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (Dec) and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (Dec). Shanna has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, since 2002, when she was 14 years of age. She began painting during the school holidays when the art centre ran cultural maintenance programs for the school children. Shanna paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and her great grandfather. Shanna attended the local Yuendumu School. She is now a full-time mum looking after her two children Ivan and Diona.
THEO (FAYE) NANGALA HUDSON
Theo (Faye) Nangala Hudson was born in 1989 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote Aboriginal community located 440 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia where her parents lived. She was born to Mika and Ursula Napangardi Hudson and has older twin brothers. Theo attended the local school until she was 14 years. When she left school she did odd jobs and later joined the Nyirripi Night Patrol, a service that provides safe transportation; diversion from contact with the criminal justice system; and intervention to prevent disorder in communities. Theo is married and has three children.
Theo began painting with the Warlukurlangu Aboriginal Corporation when she was 13 years of age. “I would watch my Grandmother paint and listen to her stories”. She began to paint in earnest with the art centre in 2006. Theo paints her mother’s Jukurrpa (Dreamings) and her father’s Jukurrpa, such as Yuparli Jukurrpa (Bush Banana Dreaming) from her mother’s side and Pikilyi Jukuurpa (Vaughan Springs Dreaming) from her father’s side.
WALTER JANGALA BROWN
Walter Jangala Brown was born in 1977 in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. He comes from a long line of artists including Pintupi artist Ronnie Jampijinpa, a highly acclaimed painter and founder of the Papunya Tula Artists group. Walter went to Yirara College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Alice Springs. When he finished school, he worked for the Shire for 2 or 3 years. He now lives in Nyirripi and is married to Valerie. They have three children.
He paints his father’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming); Warna Jukurrpa (Snake Dreaming); and Yumari Jukurrpa (a collection of rocks located to the west of Kintore in the Gibson Desert). He also paints his grandfather’s Tingari Cycle. These dreamings relate directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it.
When Walter is not working or painting he plays football and goes hunting.
LIDDY NAPANANGKA WALKER (Not pictured)
"I paint my father Japangardi's Dreaming and my grandfather's Dreaming. Mt Theo is my father's country and that's what I’m painting the special Dreamings from. The Dreamings I paint are bush tomato, goanna....Goanna likes to fight and is a lover boy. And I paint seed pods and bush potato and hopping mouse. There are lots of stories...I paint strongly."
Liddy was born in 1925 at Mt Doreen, and spent her younger years living with her family in bush camps. She regularly visited her country around Mt Theo, west of Yuendumu. She had lived in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 kms north-west of Alice Springs, in the NT of Australia, since it was first established and worked in the community in various pastoral care roles including cooking for the sick or the elderly. Liddy painted her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreaming stories which relate directly to her land, its features and animals. These stories were passed down to her by her father and her grandfather and their parents before them.
VALERIE NAPURRURLA MORRIS (Not pictured)
Valerie Napurrurla Morris was born in 1942 on Mount Doreen, an extensive cattle breeding station between Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia, and Nyirripi, 160 km further west. She went to the local school in Yuendumu and when she finished schooling she got a domestic job cleaning houses – “learning from white fella”! She married Mosquito Morris and had two children, a daughter and son. She had many grandchildren and great grandchildren. Valerie currently lived in Nyirripi but had family living in Yuendumu, Papunya and Kintore. Valerie started painting when she saw her big sisters paintings. Her sister’s taught her, her Dreaming. Valerie painted Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush-tail Possum Dreaming), and Mukakee Jukurrpa (Bush Plum Dreaming), Dreaming which relates directly to her land, its features and animals.
CORNELIA TIPUAMANTUMIRRI
GABRIEL MARALNGURRA
KIEREN KARRITPUL
ANINDILYAKWA MASTER DYERS
From Umbakumba community these women are, as pictured: Maise Lalara, Elsie Bara, Josina Manarika & Celina Maminyamaaja.