Lekira Napurrurla Oldfield

Lekira Napurrurla Oldfield-Egan was born in 1993 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. Lekira attended the local school and shortly after leaving school she began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation. She met and married Zachius Japanangka Williams, who also paints with the Art Centre. They have one daughter, Rishanta Williams. Lekira was influenced by her grandmother Eva Nungarrayi Oldfield (Dec), a well-known artist who painted with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre located in Yuendumu. They would come together to the Art Centre and paint. Lekira paints her parent’s Jukurrpa, stories which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. She particularly likes painting her Karnta Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming). The custodians for this story are the Nakamarra/Napurrurla women and Jakamarra/Jupurrurla Men. Lekira uses traditional iconography but with an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture. When Lekira is not painting, she likes to sit around and listen to music with her family and friends.