Kumuntjai Napanangka Jack

Napanangka Jack was born in 1940 at Lupul in the Sir Frederick Ranges. When Napanangka Jack was a little girl, and like so many other Aboriginal families at the time, shortages of food forced her family east towards the ration stations being set up in central Australia. She remembered the travels with her family very vividly and refers to it as when her mother carried her piggy back all the way from Western Australia to Haasts Bluff.

As an important woman in the community Napanangka Jack was well known for her hunting skills, dancing and traditional law knowledge. Napanangka Jack started painting with the opening of the Ikuntji Women’s Centre in August of 1992. Prior to that during the 1970s she assisted her husband Gideon Tjupurrula Jack who was painting at Papunya Tula. Napanangka Jack’s paintings are interpretations of her country near Lake Mackay. She uses layers of colour to build up a vision of the bush flowers and grasses. Amongst this landscape Napanangka Jack’s personal stories are told, either of the travelling of her tjukurrpa – the Bilby – or the people who once lived in the area. Her father was Tutuma Tjapangarti, one of the first men to paint for Papunya Tula. Napanangka Jack also paints his country, which includes Tjukurla, Tjila, Kurulto and Lupul. Her mother was from the Walpiri side of Lake Mackay – Winparrku – in Western Australia. A brilliant colourist, Napanangka Jack’s Hairstring, Tali (sandhill), Mungada (apple) and wildflower paintings display great talent and dedication to her profession and traditions. Her Hairstring works are made up of thousands of varied colour strokes, representing the hair being rolled on women’s thighs to make bags and clothing. Her Mungada (apple) works hold myriad dusted mauve circles overlaying the ground of varicoloured-feathered brushwork. Highly collectable, Napanangka Jack is represented in leading galleries worldwide.

Kumuntjai Napanangka Jack passed away in October 2022.