Born near Brooke’s Soakage in the 1930’s, Molly Napurrula grew up in the Coniston area before marrying a Willowra man and coming to live there. A Warlpiri speaker, her traditional country is Coniston, Kanakurlangu and Yurrnkuru. She is one of the senior women at Willowra for the dancing, where she always paints up with the Damper Seed designs – or sometimes Snake Dreaming. On her paintings, she depicts this Snake story, as well as Frog, Orphan Child, and Witchetty Grub Dreamings. She states that her grandmother taught her to paint, and her mother, and that she began working in acrylics on board in 1989 when the Willowra CDEP Coordinator made some paint and canvas available. She has seen paintings before in Alice Springs, where she took her work to sell when it was finished.

Writers:

Johnson, Vivien

Date written:

1994

Last updated:

2011