Biography

Julie-Anne Nampijinpa Rice was born in 1983 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 grew up in Yuendumu, first attending the local school then moving to Alice Springs where she completed her secondary school education. She was born into a long line of established artists, and is the great granddaughter of Thomas Jangala Rice, a prominent Warlpiri elder, who has played an important role in the community and for many years was on a number of committees including the Yuendumu Council, the local store, Central Land Council (CLC) and also a long serving committee member of the art centre.

Julie-Anne Nampijinpa began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2011. However, because of her busy lifestyle her production of art work was initially sporadic – it wasn’t until 2021, that she was able to commit herself to full time painting. Julie-Anne paints her great-grandfather’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) – Puyurru.  Puyurru/Chilla Well is west of Yuendumu, where mullju/soakages or wells are found in the usually dry creek beds. These stories were passed down to Julie-Anne’s great grandfather, by his father and his father’s fathers before him for millennia.                                                                                   

Julie-Anne has inherited the family artistic gene. She uses an unrestricted palette, and blends traditional patterns and designs, with her own ideas of modern design to depict her traditional Jukurrpa.