Biography

Elsie Nampijinpa Moore was born in 1960 at Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community, 290 km north west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She grew up in Yuendumu, attending the local school and spending much of her time in the surrounding country learning about her culture and law through story.

Elsie Nampijinpa began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2015. She paints her Wanakiji Jukurrpa (Bush Tomato Dreaming) and Watiya-warmuJukurrpa (Seed Dreaming), Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them, for millennia. She loves colour and uses an unrestricted palette to depict her traditional iconography, at the same time developing a modern individualist style, using pattern and design in a variety of contexts.

When Elsie is not painting, she spends time with her extended family and friends.