Kaakurutintya

Narputta was born c. 1933 at Kaakurutinytja and, as a child, walked

hundreds of kilometres east with her father, Tjalakuny Tjampitjinpa and

her brother, Riley Major, to Haasts Bluff, Northern Territory. Haasts

Bluff was a cattle station, then a mission settlement until it became

the community of today. Tjalakuny returned to the desert and was killed

by another tribe near Muruntji and buried there.

Whilst still very young Narputta looked after the goats and camels

around Haasts Bluff and Jay Creek. When slightly older she began cooking

in the community, including for the local Aboriginal stockmen and the

many Pintupi groups arriving from the desert weak and sick.

Narputta married Timothy Jugadai Tjungurrayi who was the head

stockman until he began painting in the mid 1970’s by adapting the

traditional styles of the initial Papunya Tula artists and depicting

site mythologies for which he held responsibilities. They had eight

children including the renowned artist, Daisy Napaltjarri Jugadai, and

artist Molly Napaltjarri Jugadai.

Narputta began painting by assisting her husband until she began solo

work and becoming one of the founding artists of the Ikuntji Art Centre

at Haasts Bluff.

Narputta became one of the most important Western Desert women

artists and her stories are Lampintja, Kaakurutinytja, Muruntji and the

Tjukurrpa of two women ancestors travelling huge distances gathering

food and digging goannas from holes.   Kaarkurutinytja and Lampintja are

significant areas in the Creation time for being formed by a woman

digging for sand goannas and are a large salt pan and large mounds and

deep dips. Muruntji is an important story as it’s where Narputta’s

father was buried.

Narputta won the 1997 National Aboriginal Art Award in Darwin.

Whilst in Tingari Arts Narputta would often say to Linx Macpherson

that the two of them must travel to Muruntji to build a camel fence

around the area where her father was buried.

Narputta Nangala was a special woman, warm, fun and generous and she loved her family.

Collections include:

National Art Gallery of Australia, Canberra

National Gallery of Victoria

Queensland Art Gallery

Art Gallery of South Australia

Darwin Museum & Art Galleries