Biography

Valerie Napanangka Marshall was born in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to the Ltyentye Apurte Community, also known as Santa Teresa, an Arrernte indigenous community in the Northern Territory, Australia, located about 80 kilometres from Alice Springs. Shortly after her birth her parents moved first  to Yuendumu and then to Nyirripi where Valerie now lives. Valerie attended Kormilda College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. After she finished school she returned to Nyirripi. She is married and has four children.

Valerie has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, a remote aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs, since 2001. Warlukurlangu makes regular visists to Nyirripi to drop off canvas, paint and brushes for the artists and to collect finished artwork. She paints her father’s dreaming, dreamings which are related to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These dreamings have been passed down through the generations for at least 50 millennia. To depict her traditional Jukurrpa, Valerie uses traditional iconography, while developing a modern individualistic style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa.

When Valerie is not working at the local store or painting she enjoys hunting with her family.