Biography

Zachias Japanangka Williams was born in 1993 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. Zachias was born into a long line of artists. His mother is Juliette Nampijinpa Brown and his Grandmother is Wendy Nungarrayi Brown and his great grandparents are Bessie Nakamarra Sims (1932 – 2012) and Paddy Japaljarri Sims (1916-2010), all renowned artists, nationally and internationally and who paint and have painted with Walukurlangu Artists. He has one sister and one brother. Zachias attended Yuendumu Primary and Secondary School. When he finished school, he worked at the Mining Shop. He is married to Shikira Pitjara Petrick, an Alyawarra woman, who also paints.

Zachias began painting with WarlukurlanguArtists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, in 2010. He paints his mother’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) and Pamapardu Jukurrpa (Flying Ant Dreaming – Wapurtali); his father’s Wandapi Jukurrpa (Goanna Dreaming); and his grandmother’s Marlu Jukurrpa (Red Kangaroo Dreaming) and Janganpa Jukurrpa (Brush-tailed Possum Dreaming), dreamings which relate directly to his land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories have been passed down through the generations for millennia. Zachias loves colour and uses an unrestricted palette to depict his traditional iconography, at the same time developing a modern individualist style, using pattern and texture in a variety of contexts.