Biography

Mary Napangardi Butcher was born at Mount Dennison, but has spent most of her life in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She attended the local school but did not continue her studies until now (2011) when she enrolled in an English and Literacy Course with Batchelor College. She is very committed to her studies and travels, at least twice a year, to Darwin to attend courses. Mary is a single parent and has two sons, Herbert and Johnathan Martin. Mary has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1987. She was greatly influenced by her father Jack Japanangka Butcher (Dec) and his sister Daisy Napanangka Nelson (1930 – 2001), both artists who painted with Warlukurlangu Artists in the early 80s and 90s. Mary would often paint with her sister Florrie Napangardi Jones and with Daisy on the same piece of artwork. Mary paints her Pikilyi Jukurrpa stories-Pikilyi is a sacred water hole that never dries out. These Dreamings depict country, and describe journeys across the land. Traditions passed down to her by her father and grandfather and their fathers before them for millennia. Mary loves to paint, to learn more about her culture. “We [family] get together and as we paint we all tell stories”.