MARIA NAMPIJINPA BROWN - Aboriginal Artist from Yuendumu N.T, Central Desert Region

Maria Nampijinpa Brown - Artist from Yendumu, N.T

Maria Nampijinpa Brown was born in 1973 in Alice Springs Hospital which is the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community, 290 km from Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She is the daughter of Wendy Nungarrayi Brown and grand-daughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (Dec) one of the founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (Dec), a successful artist in her own right. When she was young she would watch her mother and her grandparents paint and listen to their stories. She is widowed, lives in Yuendumu and has two daughters, Antoinette Napanangka Brown and Alicka Napanangka Brown who also paint.
Maria paints her parents and her grandparents Jukurrpa stories, stories that have been passed down through the generations. These stories relate to the artists traditional country northwest of Nyirirpi, a settlement 160 kms west of Yuendumu. Maria uses traditional iconography, while developing a modern individualistic style to depict her traditional Jukurrpa. When Maria is not painting, she likes to tell stories to her grandchildren, hunt for honey ants when it is raining, and collect firewood for cooking kangaroo tails.