Naata Nungarrayi was born in 1932 at the site of Kumil, which is west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia. She is from the Pintupi Language group located in Kintore, and is one of the leading senior elders of the Kintore women artist movement, with works sought after by collectors worldwide. In 1999 Naata contributed to Kintore women’s painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal.
Naata is the sister of George Tjungurrayi and Nancy Nungarrayi, and her son is Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa, all well known artists in their own right. It was in 1994 that the Pintupi ‘painting women’ emerged in a ‘women’s painting camp’ behind the women’s mountain at Kintore. This involved senior women from the Kintore region like Naata and their kinswomen from the Ikuntji Women’s Centre at Haast Bluff.
The paintings by Naata Nungurrayi are characterized by bold, expressive compositions with thickly applied dot work that form fields in bright red, yellow, pink and orange tones. Often we see clearly defined areas or inward spirals in different sizes and in different constellations spread across the canvas.
All her works are associated with women’s concerns and Women’s Law of the Tingari Cycle. The Tingari are mythical ancestors of the Aboriginals, who travelled over vast stretches of country, performing rituals and creating and shaping the land around them. The Tingari women usually followed the Tingari men and were accompanied by novices. It is the Tingari men and women’s travels and adventures that are enshrined in a number of so-called song cycles. The Pintupi have to pass through an initiation ceremony to become eligible to depict these sacred stories. Stories are different for men and women. Tingari cycles are usually painted by men only Naata Nungurrayi is one of few women with the sufficient tribal hierarchy and family lineage to have earned the right to depict these stories.
Naata paints traditional designs depicting sacred women’s sites, the performance of their dancing and the designs painted on the upper part of their bodies for Women’s Business.
Naata’s artworks have been entered into the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Awards. To be selected for the Telstra Award is an enormous recognition of her work.
In 2004, she was named among he Top50 of Australia’s most collectable artists in ‘Australian Art Collector’ and in 2003 on of Naata’s paintings appeared on an Australia Post stamp for a series entitled Art of Papunya Tula.
Naata is the sister of George Tjungurrayi and Nancy Nungarrayi, and her son is Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa, all well known artists in their own right. It was in 1994 that the Pintupi ‘painting women’ emerged in a ‘women’s painting camp’ behind the women’s mountain at Kintore. This involved senior women from the Kintore region like Naata and their kinswomen from the Ikuntji Women’s Centre at Haast Bluff.
The paintings by Naata Nungurrayi are characterized by bold, expressive compositions with thickly applied dot work that form fields in bright red, yellow, pink and orange tones. Often we see clearly defined areas or inward spirals in different sizes and in different constellations spread across the canvas.
All her works are associated with women’s concerns and Women’s Law of the Tingari Cycle. The Tingari are mythical ancestors of the Aboriginals, who travelled over vast stretches of country, performing rituals and creating and shaping the land around them. The Tingari women usually followed the Tingari men and were accompanied by novices. It is the Tingari men and women’s travels and adventures that are enshrined in a number of so-called song cycles. The Pintupi have to pass through an initiation ceremony to become eligible to depict these sacred stories. Stories are different for men and women. Tingari cycles are usually painted by men only Naata Nungurrayi is one of few women with the sufficient tribal hierarchy and family lineage to have earned the right to depict these stories.
Naata paints traditional designs depicting sacred women’s sites, the performance of their dancing and the designs painted on the upper part of their bodies for Women’s Business.
Naata’s artworks have been entered into the 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Telstra Awards. To be selected for the Telstra Award is an enormous recognition of her work.
In 2004, she was named among he Top50 of Australia’s most collectable artists in ‘Australian Art Collector’ and in 2003 on of Naata’s paintings appeared on an Australia Post stamp for a series entitled Art of Papunya Tula.
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