Marie Napurulla

Urampinyi | Tempe Downs

Marie Napurulla is a Luritja woman from Urampinyi (Tempe Downs) in central Australia who began painting and creating artworks over 20 years ago to tell the story of her family.

Marie’s grandmother and mother were both part of the stolen generation and this gave Marie a strong calling to go back to country to learn about her First Nations Heritage. She was grateful to find her grandmother who shared an old story about a journey that was regularly taken by her ancestors from Urrampinyi | Tempe Downs to Utju |Areyonga and then to Ntaria | Hermansburg.

This is a very important story for Marie and her children as it connects them to the country in which they belong. The Grandmother’s Journey story consists of three circles that represent the places, two rivers, the Finke and the Palmer, that are crossed in the journey and the sacred waterholes that can be found along the way.

Her paintings depict a map of the country and the path of the journey.