Katherine Marshall Nakamarra b. 1986

Katherine Marshall Nakamarra was born in 1968, and is the eldest daughter of two significant Papunya Tula artists, Walangkura Napanangka and Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula. In her youth, Katherine witnessed the genesis of the Western Desert contemporary painting movement that dawned in the early 1970s in the community of Warumpi (Papunya). Katherine’s younger sister, Debra Young Nakamarra, is also a renowned artist.

Katherine’s parents were both respected figures within the Pintupi community at the time and were custodians of a number of significant Dreaming stories. Katherine first began painting in 1986, developing her own style of depicting these inherited stories. Katherine depicts her mother Walangkura’s country in this painting, Tjintjintjin, a site north-west of Walungurru (Kintore). Katherine uses motifs that are reminiscient of her mother’s style, however she utilizes the Central and Western dot and linework techniques in a way that is all her own. Concentric circles signify the ceremonial sites, connected by lines that represent the ancient paths walked between them by her ancestors countless times. Katherine’s artworks also capture the features of her ancestral country, such as waterholes and rocky outcrops, which are intertwined with deeply significant Dreaming stories.