Brenda Armstrong Punytjina

Brenda was born on 24 September 1983 in Alice Springs, NT. She grew up in Amata, a community on Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) lands approximately 115km south of Uluru (Ayers Rock) in South Australia. Her mother, Nita Williamson, paints at the Tjala art centre in Amata. Brenda’s maternal grandmother, Ruby Williamson, was a renowned artist who also painted at the Tjala art centre. Brenda learned to paint her ‘kaliny-kalinypa Tjukurpa’ (honey grevillea [Grevillea juncifolia] Dreaming) from her grandmother. Her mother’s family taught her to speak Pitjantjatjara, while her father’s family taught her to speak Pertame, a southern dialect of Arrernte spoken in the Finke River region.

Brenda now lives and paints in Nyirrpi, a Warlpiri community approximately 160km west of Yuendumu. When she is not painting, she likes to listen to music, watch movies, read, and draw with pen and paper. She has one son, Caleb.