Biography

Clarissa Nangala Williams was born in 1992 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Bridget Napangardi Williams, an artist with Warlukurlangu Artists, and has one brother Josiah. Clarissa has grown up most of her life in Yuendumu, attending the local school and staying at home with family. She has one son, Roman born in 2009. Although relatively young, Clarissa has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2009. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), Dreamings which relate directly to her land, particularly the site Puyuru, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and his father’s father before them for millennia. She continues to use traditional iconography, while developing a modern individualistic style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa. When she is not painting, she likes to spend time in Nyirripi, a remote community 160 km north-west of Yuendumu, visiting relatives and hunting for goanna with her friends.