Naata Nungurrayi's paintings possess a distinctive strength and vitality. They communicate the power that may only be associated with an artist who's ceremonial and ancestral knowledge is as deep as her attachment to the land itself.
Nungurrai was born around 1932 in Kumilnga, Western Australia. She was around 30 when she encountered the welfare patrol in 1963 and was forced to leave behind her desert homelands, brought with her family to Papunya the following year. Memories of her home Country and her life before contact, continues to inspire and influence her highly acclaimed paintings. After initially moving to Docker River with family members in the late 1970’s, Nungurrayi finally settled around Kintore during the early 1980’s. She began painting for Papunya Tula Artists in 1996.
Nungurrayi's paintings are full of juxtapositions; combining a composed geometric style, with a looser and more organic painterly style introduced by the women within the painting camps of the early and mid 1990’s. Her preference to paint with pale creamy ochres, translates a softness to her paintings, while her thoughtful compositions seem to bring all elements together with a sense of harmony and inclusiveness.
Nungurrayi is now one of the leading Kintore women artists and a respected elder within the Pintupi tribal group. Traditional initiation into the sacred knowledge of Women’s Law has granted Nungurrayi the authority to chronicle, in her own visual style, the women’s sites, as well as the sacred ceremonies they perform. Nungurrayi includes visual references to the food collected, the waterholes visited and the encampments where they gathered in large groups to share their wisdom and teach the younger generations.