Ningura Napurrurla

Ningura Napurrula was born c.1938 in Watulka south of Kiwirrkurra community in Western Australia. Napurrula was married to the late Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and in 1962 Yala Yala and his family arrived at the settlement of Papunya, situated 500kms west of Alice Spring as part of the exodus of Pintupi people who made the epic journey out of the desert through Yininti. Wili,Illpili and Wirrinpili. Ningura and her family lived in Papunya’s Pintupi camp for many years where Yala Yala was one of the original artists participating in the Papunya Tula Art movement that grew out of an initiative by the resident school teacher, Geoffrey Bardon. Moving to the community of Kintore near the Western Australian border, Ningura had essentially again located herself within range of the place of her birth. Her exposure to the evolution of the painting program at Papunya, (where the motifs that were commonly painted and formed in the sand or on the body were first transferred to permanent surfaces of board and canvas) would have been the impetus for Ningura to begin painting herself.