Biography

Senana Napurrurla Walker was born in 1997 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 completing her secondary school education in Alice Springs. She is the granddaughter of Liddy Napanangka Walker (Dec 2017), a well-known and established artist who began painting on canvas when Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, was established in 1985. Senana’s grandmother became one of the Art Centre’s most important members.

Senana began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2017. She paints her Pirlarla Jukurrpa (Dogwood Tree Bean 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 grandparents and their parents before them for millennia. Senana learnt to paint by watching her grandmother and family members paint. 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 Senana is not painting, she spends time with her family and friends at home and at community activities.