Naata Nunigurrayi was born at the site of Kumil, which is west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia, c.1932. She, and her family, arrived in Papunya with one of Jeremy Long’s government patrols. Naata began her Aboriginal Art career in early 1996, her son is Kenny Williams Tjampitjinpa also a well known artist. In 1999 Naata contributed to the Kintore womens painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal.
Naata is the sister of George Tjungurrayi and Nancy Nungurrayi, both highly sought after artists. It was in 1994 that saw the emergence of the Pintupi ‘painting women’ in a “women’s painting camp behind the women’s mountain at Kintore involving senior ceremonial women from the Kintore region and their kinswomen from the Ikuntji Women’s Centre at Haast Bluff.
All her works are associated with women’s concerns and Women’s Law (Tingari cycle). She paints traditional designs depicting sacred women’s sites and women performing sacred women’s ceremonies in the Kintore area as well as the designs that they paint on their bodies when performing ceremonies.Generally, the Tingari are a group of mythical characters of the Dreaming who travelled over vast stretches of the country, performing rituals, creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari women usually followed along with 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 song cycles. It is only through initiation ceremony that Nancy has permission to paint the stories that she does.