Mary Brown Napandardi's works often reinterpret scenes from women's ceremonies including body painting designs, song lines and dance cycles. She also depicts dreaming stories passed down through generations. She harnesses traditional iconography and symbols to depict flora, fauna and significant landmarks including expansive sand hills and rockholes.
Napangardi was born around 1953 within a bush camp at Mandarine in Central Australia. Growing up, she lived a very traditional lifestyle; learning and caring for the land as well as learning important cultural knowledge and the dreaming stories of her country. During her childhood, Napangardi and her family were relocated by a white man to an Aboriginal settlement called the Yuendumu Community in Central Australia.
Napangardi began painting in the early 1990s. In 2005, she began painting for Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation in Yuendumu. These sacred stories translated within her work have been passed through her family for generations.