Abie Loy was born in 1972 at the Utopia homelands, 270 Kms north east of Alice Springs. Her language is Eastern Anmatyerre and her ancestral country is Iylenty, also called Mosquito Bore. Abie began painting in 1994 alongside her grandmother Kathleen Petyarre.

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Anna Petyarre is an eastern Anmatyerre woman, born at Utopia in 1960. Anna's home is Atneltyeye, Boundary Bore, on the Utopia Homelands, approximately 220 km from Alice Springs. She lives there with her family. She is a grandmother with five grandchildren. Anna, whose mothe...

Betty Mpetyane (also spelt Mbitjana in the early linguistic method) was born on Utopia station in 1957 in the era when the station was still run by non-indigenous owners. Later in 1979 a successful land claim hearing resulted in Utopia station being granted as permanent leg...

Biddee Baadjo, a senior Wangkatjungka woman, was born around 1938, near Purrpurn waterhole, located in her ancestral country in the Great Sandy Desert in Western Australia. When she was still a baby, she was snatched by an eagle from a coolamon, where she had been left slee...

Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri, (1920's - 2008), was born at Pirupa Akla, country located near the Olgas and to the west of Ayers Rock. By the time he was a young man, most of Whiskey's family had passed away. Many of his people had begun moving towards Haasts Bluff mission, abou...

Senior artists at Wangkatjungka Community have been painting together since 1994. The majority of the artists grew up on their ancestral lands in the Great Sandy Desert and were children when their parents joined the great exodus of families out of the Western Desert areas. ...

Edward Blitner was born in southern Arnhemland in 1961. His bush name is Taiita. In the early years he lived at Ngukurr Community on the Roper River in the Northern Territory. Later he attended school at Concordia College in Adelaide until the age of sixteen. When he returne...

Eileen Napaltjarri is a highly regarded second generation artist of the Western Desert movement. Eileen was born in the Haasts Bluff community in December 1956 to the late Charlie Tararu Tjungurrayi, one of the founding members of Papunya Tula Artists who forged a longstandi...

Emily Pwerle, the younger sister of acclaimed artist Minnie Pwerle (1914-2006), lives at Irrultja, a tiny settlement at Utopia, 300km northeast of Alice Springs, with two of her sisters, Molly and Galya Pwerle. Emily started painting in 2004 when her niece, artist Barbara We...

Eubena (Yupinya) Nampitjin , one of the best known of the Warlayirti Artists from Balgo Hills, was born in the early 1920s in Tjinndjaldpa, south of Jupiter Well in the Great Sandy Desert , Western Australia. Eubena was taught mapam, traditional healing skills, as a young g...

Evelyn Pultara was born around 1940 at Woodgreen Station, the cattle property adjoining Utopia Station, north east of Alice Springs. She is an Anmatyerre woman and the mother of six children.

Evelyn began painting in 1997. Her early works were paintings on tradition...

Freddie Timms was given the bush name, Ngarrmaliny, after the place he was born at, Police Hole, around 1946 on the East Kimberley cattle station of Bedford Downs. Growing up on station properties, Freddie Timms learned all the riding and stock handling skills at an early ag...

Galya Pwerle was born during the 1930s, the youngest of a family of six girls, including one of Australia's most acclaimed indigenous artists, the late Minnie Pwerle. Galya started painting in 2004, along with two of her other sisters, Molly and Emily Pwerle, all of whom ar...

George Tuckerbox was born in the late 1930's near Naminpa country, in the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. He grew up in country around Yimpurrpa, but then his family joined the exodus that saw large groups of Wangkatjungka people leaving the desert and travelling no...

George Ward Tjungurrayi was born around 1947 in the Western Desert near the remote West Australian community of Tjukurrla. His father had died when he was young, and it was not until his teenage years that George first met with white settlers. This meeting occurred when a w...

Gloria Petyarre was born in Utopia around 1945. Her language is Anmatyerre and her country is Atnangkere. Gloria is one of seven sisters who are all artists, including Kathleen Petyarre, Nancy Petyarre, Violet Petyarre and Ada Bird. Gloria lives at Mulga Bore (Akaye Soakage)...

Helen McCarthy Tyalmuty was born at Tennant Creek in 1972. She spent most of her childhood at Nauiyu Nambiyu Community at Daly River, about 230 kms south of Darwin.

Later Helen completed her education at Mount St Bernard College at Herberton on the Atherton Tablela...

Jack Dale was born in the bush at Mt House Station, in the west Kimberley around 1920. His early life was marked by the experience of conflict between different cultures. Jack's Aboriginal mother, a Ngarinyin woman, tried to keep her son from his violent white father. Jack ...

Janie Lee was born at the old mission at Balgo around 1945. Her family had lived in the area surrounding the Canning Stock Route, her mother was born at Kulyayi, the site of Well 42. Janie says that stockman had given her parents bullock meat and tobacco. They liked bullo...

Jill Jack (bush name Tjunjun) was born at Christmas Creek around 1955. Her parents had been part of the large desert migrations of the 1940's and 1950's, where people moved north towards the cattle station country of the Fitzroy Valley.

Jill's mother came from Ja...

Jimmy Baker was born along the Kalaya Tjukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) track in the Western Desert at the rockhole called Malumpa, close to the present day community of Kanpi. At the venerable ripe age of around 90, Jimmy is assisted by his family when painting larger paintings.

Jock Mosquito is a senior Jaru man, and was born around 1944 on Nicholson Station bordering on the desert country south of Kununurra. He spent his working life based at Nicholson, and like other stockmen of his day, mustered on surrounding stations - the best of his profess...

Judy Watson was born at Yarungkanji, Mt. Doreen Station, around 1935, at the time when many Warlpiri and other Central and Western Desert Peoples were living a traditional nomadic life. With her family Judy made many trips on foot to her country and lived for long periods a...

Judy Napangardi Martin was born about 1940 in Warlpiri country near Yuendumu in the Tanami Desert. She is the eldest daughter of famous painter Lorna Napurrula Fencer, and is half sister to Judy Napangardi Watson. Judy was painting during the 1990's at Lajamanu Community, l...

June Bird Ngale was born c1954 at Waite River in the Northern Territory and later moved with her family to the outstation at Mulga Bore on the Utopia Homelands. Her father, Tommy Bird Mpetyane, passed away early in her life, and she came to call Lindsay Bird Mpetyane her fat...

Kathleen Ngale, one of the most senior Anmatyerre elders from the Utopia homelands, was born in the early 1930s, and is custodian of the Bush Plum (Anwekety) from her traditional country, Ahalpere.
Kathleen Ngale began her art career in the late 1970s with over eighty ot...

Kudditji Kngwarreye was born about 1928 at Alhalkere at Utopia Station, located about 270 kms north east of Alice Springs. His language is Eastern Anmatyerre. He is the younger brother of renowned artist Emily Kame Kngwarreye, and began painting in the early 1980's. Kudditji...

Lilly Kelly Napangardi is a senior law woman of the Mt Liebig community, in the Haasts Bluff area of the Northern Territory, 325 kilometres north-west of Alice Springs.

Lilly Kelly was born at Haasts Bluff in 1948. She moved to the newly established settlement of P...

Lily Hargraves Nungarrayi is a senior Warlpiri women born in the Tanami Desert around 1930. In the early 1950's Nungarrayi moved to the settlement of Lajamanu, located at Hookers Creek, when the Warlpiri population at Yuendemu had outgrown that settlement's ability to house...

Lily Karedada was born in the Prince Regent River area on the Mitchell Plateau, on the north west section of the Kimberley coast of Western Australia. Her parents were Wunumbal language group, and Lily's birthplace was Wumbango Wangurr in her Father's country, where images o...

Linda Syddick is a Pintupi woman who was born at Lake MacKay in the Gibson Desert, WA, in 1937. Her Aboriginal name is Tjunkiya Wukula Napaltjarri. Linda was raised in the traditional nomadic fashion until the age of eight or nine, when her family walked out of the desert an...

The passing of the highly significant artist Lorna Napurrula Fencer in 2006 marked the end of a breathtaking flourish of artistic output in the seventh and eighth decades of the artists life. Represented in the Australian National Gallery, National Gallery of Victoria, other...

Makinti Napanangka is a senior Pintupi woman, born around 1932, who has resided within the Kintore Community and now lives in Alice Springs. She was introduced to acrylic painting in 1995 as a member of the Haasts Bluff-Kintore painting project conducted at Kintore. Makinti ...

Maureen Hudson is a Warlpiri woman, born in 1959 at Mt Allen, about 300 Kms north of Alice Springs. She began painting in 1988. Maureen's paintings draw on traditional Warlpiri Dreaming stories, and incorporate her own distinctive sense of colour and innovation of design. Ma...

Minnie Pwerle was born around 1910 in the region of Utopia, about 250 Kms north-east of Alice Springs. Her country is Atnwengerrp and her language is Anmatyerre and Alyawarr.

Minnie Pwerle made her first paintings at Utopia Community in September 1999 when she was ...

Mitjili Napurrula is a Pintupi woman from the Haasts Bluff region, located 200 km west of Alice Springs. She was born about 1945 and is half sister to artist Turkey Tjupurrula Tolson. She married Long Tom Tjapanangka at Papunya in the 1960's, and they later lived at Haasts B...

Nada Rawlins was born about 1936 near Kirriwirri, in the southern stretches of Wangkatjungka country, in Western Australias Great Sandy Desert. This country incorporates Percival lakes, a chain of salt lakes running for hundreds of kilometers across the desert. The traditio...

Ngoia Pollard is a Warlpiri woman, born in Haasts Bluff in the late 1940's. She was brought up at Haasts Bluff and remembers when people rode on camels to travel anywhere, and also talks of the time when women and young girls had to look after herds of goats. In her recolle...

Nora Tjookootja was born around 1945 at Liturwarti in the Great Sandy Desert. As a young child she left her home country and walked up the Canning Stock Route to Bililuna. Many desert people were moving north towards the white settlements of the Kimberley cattle station coun...

Nyuju Stumpy Brown is a senior Wangkatjungka woman born around 1924 at Ngapawarlu in Western Australias Great Sandy Desert. Stumpy is a full sister to the late artist Rover Thomas. She lost her mother and father at an early age and was raised by her uncle, Jamali who was dr...

Penny K Lyons is a senior Walmajarri woman who was born c1940 at Wanywurtu under a tutujarti tree (desert walnut tree), in the Great Sandy Desert. She grew up in that place with her family, one father, two mothers, one brother and two sisters. There is a rockhole with sprin...

Peter Goodijie, (1925 - 2009, bush name Kurtiji.), was a senior Wangkatjungka lawman at Kulyayi, near Well 42 on the Canning Stock Route, in Western Australia's Great Sandy Desert. Kurtiji's mother was Walmajarri and his father Wangkatjungka. His paintings record the water...

Queenie McKenzie (1915- 1998) was born at Old Texas Downs Station on the Ord River, to the south-east of Turkey Creek. She grew up among Gija people and speaks Gija as her first language. Queenie was the first women painter to gain prominence in the East Kimberley school of...

Rosie says of her early life:

When I left my home lands, came north on the Canning Stock Route to Bililuna, Old Balgo. Catholic Mission there. Most Wangkajunka people travelled that way, when they left the desert to go towards white settlement.

No mother...

Teresa Purla is the daughter of Barbara Weir, and the granddaughter of the late Minnie Pwerle, both highly reputed Utopia artists. Teresa was born in Darwin in 1963, and spent a number of her early years living in Papunya with her mother and father.

In her adult lif...

Tommy Carroll is a Gija man, born in 1956 on Doon Doon Station, 100 kilometers north of Warmun Community in the East Kimberley. As a young boy he worked as a stockman at Doon Doon, and throughout his youth he also worked on Bow River and Lissadell Stations. He currently assi...

Walangkura Napanangka was born about 1940 in the bush at Tjiturulnga, west of Walungurru (Kintore) - in the Gibson Desert, near the Western Australia/ Northern Territory border. Her family was amongst a group of Pintupi people who made their way to the Ikuntji settlement (Ha...

Wentja Napaltjarri was born at Malparinga, and grew up west of Kintore in her father's country, located in the Gibson Desert on the Western Australia/ Northern Territory border. Wentja is the daughter of one of the founders of the Desert painting movement, Shorty Langkata. W...

Willie Kew (bush name Luurn) was born about 1930 at the Kingfisher (Luurn) Dreaming site at Nyirla Rockhole, in the Great Sandy Desert near Well 38 (Wartuparni) on the Canning Stock Route. Willie Kews Dreaming and his own bush name identify him with the mythic Kingfisher th...