Alice Nampitjinpa / Tali (Sandhills) (AN006)

1943  – 2020

Alice Nampitjinpa was born in 1943 near Talaalpi, a swamp in the desert near the Western Australian border. Her father was Uta Uta Tjangala, one of the original Papunya Tula painters.

Prior to painting, Alice worked at the Kintore School for many years teaching the young girls dancing and the traditions of the desert people. Alice started painting on the “Minyama Tjukurrpa” – the Kintore Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project. As a painter she was inspired by her rich cultural heritage and thrived when involved with her stories and lore.

Alice Nampitjinpa was an active “dancing woman” who travelled widely to participate in annual ceremonies and ‘Womens Law’ meetings.

Her main story is the porcupine or Tjilkamata which is told using bright colours such as orange and yellow to mirror the ochres that are used in ceremonial body painting.

Alice was a keen hunter and liked to go hunting with fellow artist Eunice Jack Napanangka.

Sadly, Alice Nampitjinpa passed away at the end of 2020.

Selected Collections
• National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT
• National Gallery of Victoria, VIC
• Art Gallery of New South Wales, NSW
• Parliament House Collection, Canberra, ACT
• Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht, NL
• Arts Daustralie Stephane Jacob, Paris, FR
• Gabrielle Pizzi Collection, Melbourne, VIC
• Heide Museum of Modern Art, Melbourne, VIC
• Myer Baillieu Collection, de Young Museum, San Fransico, USA
• Red Dot Gallery, Singapore
• Supreme Court of the Northern Territory, Darwin, NT
• University of Queensland Art Collection, Brisbane, QLD
• Griffith University, QLD
• Araluen Art Centre, Alice Springs, NT

In this artwork, Alice has depicted the sandhills or ‘tali’ as thin repetitive stripes, the marks made in the sand left by wind. The sandhills are very important to Alice, who paints them repetitively, retelling the many stories associated with this area. One of the stories describes the porcupine, who was travelling through sandhills and passing near two carpet snakes (kuniya kutjarra) who were living underneath the water. Alice says:- “Every day the porcupine comes up to the rock hole: he is sitting, drinking, walking and eating tucker”