Biography

Andrea Napanangka Tasman was born on 13 December 1979 in Darwin Hospital, the closest hospital to Lajamanu, a remote aboriginal community in semi-arid country on the edge of the Tanami Desert, halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs. Her parents were living there at the time but in 1986 they returned to Yuendumu. Andrea attended Kormilda College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. When Andrea finished school she returned to Yuendumu where she worked at Centre Link as a clerk. She currently works for Yuendumu School in the Sport Academy, training Junior School students. Andrea is married and has three children, two sons and one daughter.

Andrea has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2004. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Yarla Jukurrpa (Bush Potato Dreaming) and her mother’s Jukurrpa stories, Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming). These stories relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. They have been passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. Andrea learnt to paint by watching her Mum paint and finds it very rewarding. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture, a culture she wants to maintain.

When Andrea is not working or painting she plays basketball, which takes her to sport festivals in other communities such as Lajamanu and Nyirripi. Andrea also likes to go hunting with her family on weekends.