Naata Nungurrayi

DOB: c.1932- 2021
BORN: Kumil, WA
LANGUAGE GROUP: Pintupi
COMMUNITY: Kintore, NT

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Naata Nunigurrayi was born at the site of Kumil, which is west of the Pollock Hills in Western Australia, c.1932. She came into Papunya with her family on one of Jeremy Long's government patrols. Naata began painting for the company in early 1996, her son is Kenny Williams Tjampitinpa also a well-known artist. In 1999, Naata contributed to the Kintore women's 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 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.

They are famous for their bold expressive line works and then "piling on" of paint in a dense and often vibrantly coloured profusion to create some of the most radiant and richly textured surfaces ever to be seen. Naata Nungurrayi from the Pintupi Language group from Kintore is one of the leading Kintore women artists and is in her 70s. A respected senior elder whose artwork is sought after by collectors worldwide. All of 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 and creating and shaping particular sites. The Tingari women usually followed the Tingarri 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 the initiation ceremony that Naata has permission to paint the stories that she does.

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Naata passed away in September 2021