Biography

Crystal Nungarrayi Morris was born 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 Hamilton Morris and Nancy Napurrurla Dickson, an artist who also works with Warlukurlangu Artists. Crystal attended the local school in Yuendumu that attended Yarara College, in Alice Springs. After school Crystal returned to Yuendumu where she met her future husband. They are married and have two children, a daughter and son and also grandchildren. They now live in Nyirripi, a community 160 km north-west of Yuendumu. Crystal has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2005. Her grandmother, Valerie Napurrurla Morris, also paints for Warlukurlangu Aratists, and it was Valerie that Crystal watched when she was little. She loves painting as it “keeps me busy and I like the patterns and designs belonging to my family’s Jukurrpa, Dreamings which relate directly to my land, its features and animals”. She uses an unrestricted palette, experimenting with colour to develop a modern interpretation of her family’s traditional culture. When Crystal is not painting she loves to go out hunting for goanna and for bush tucker.