Ningura Napurrula
Ningura Napurrula (born c.1938 – 2013) was a Pintupi-speaking Indigenous Australian artist from the Western Desert, whose work was internationally acclaimed. Her works included a site-specific commission for the ceiling of the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, as well as appearing on an Australian postage stamp. Personal life Napurrula was born circa 1938 in Watulka, south of Kiwirrkurra in the East Gibson Desert, Western Australia. Her first journey out of the desert was in 1962 with the Northern Territory Welfare Branch patrol, when her son needed medical treatment at Papunya. She travelled with her son and her husband, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, back to Kiwirrkurra that year. The following year Napurrula and her family group returned, this time as part of a migration of the Pintupi people due to drought. Napurrula died on 11 November 2013 from kidney disease. Her sons Morris Gibson Tjapaltjarri (Mawitji) and Adam Gibbs Tjapaltjarri are painters, as well as her daughter Glenys Napaltjarri. Career It was through her husband, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi's painting that Napurrula first began work as an artist, supporting the production of his work, alongside his two other wives. Tjungurrayi was a founder of the Papunya Tula Artists and was