Ningura Napurrula was born around 1938 at Watulka, south of Kiwirrkurra. She moved to Papunya with her husband, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi, and their children in the early days of the community’s establishment. Here Yala Yala Gibbs became one of the founding artists of Papunya Tula in the early 1970s. Before this they had lived a traditional life on their Country in the Western Desert. The family moved to Kintore, close to the Western Australian border, in the 1980s.
Ningura assisted her husband’s painting practice while living at Kintore, infilling the backgrounds of his precisely dotted Tingari designs. In 1995 Ningura started painting her own pieces with a bold hand and limited colour palette, and after her husband’s death in 1998 her own practice greatly increased.
Nungurra’s paintings are highly regarded and held in major public and private collections across Australia and internationally. Her sons Morris Gibson Tjapaltjarri and Adam Gibbs Tjapaltjarri carry on the family tradition, painting their mother and father’s stories.