Biography

Risharna Nakamarra Dickson 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 went to the local primary school before completing her secondary school education in Alice Springs.

Risharna began painting in 2010, with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu.  However, it wasn’t until 2020, that she was able to commit herself to full time painting. She paints her father’s Warna Jukurrpa (Snake Dreaming) and occasionally her mother’s Karnta Jukurrpa (Women’s Dreaming). These dreamings have been passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia.

Risharna uses traditional motifs, to depict her ancestral stories: the ancestral ‘warna’ (snake) journeying across country and the women hunting for bush foods.

“I like painting my father’s and mother’s Jukurrpa, it makes me feel proud and happy.”