Nyanyuma Napangati was born around 1944 in the Gibson Desert just outside Kiwirkurra in Western Australia, 800 km west of Alice Springs. Nyunyuma, also known as Nyanyuma Napangardi, grew up ‘in the bush’ and walked into Papunya with her family group in 1964, after they had made contact with one of the last government Welfare Branch Patrols.
She has strong ties to other important Aboriginal artists. She is the sister of Kanya Tjapangati and Charlie Tjapangati. Their father had three wives and was the older brother of well known ‘Papunya Tula’ Artist Pinta Pinta Tjapanangka. Nyanyuma is also closely related to the late Kanya Tjapangati, who passed away in 2006, through the same father but from a different mother.
Nanyuma Napangati began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1990. Nyanyuma paints her ‘dreaming’-country in the form of symbols representing women and their activities and the area in which she grew up. Her painting career runs parallel to the other senior women of Kiwirkurra and Kintore.
In 1999, Nanyuma was one of the artists involved in the Kiwirrkurra Women's Painting project, which was auctioned to raise money for the Renial Unit at Kintore, an important Aboriginal Community in the Western Desert. Nanyuma is a Pintupi senior law woman and depicts designs associated with women's ceremonies.
The work of Nyanyuma Napangati has been exhibited widely throughout Australia and also was part of the major Australian Aboriginal Art exhibition in Poznan, Poland in 2015. Her work is included in the Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Artbank, and a range of private collections.