Debra Young Nakamarra / Women’s Ceremony

Learned to paint beside her mother, Walangkura Napanangka, and sisters. Her bold, thick dotting and personal palette portray sacred women’s sites and inherited Pintupi narratives around Kintore. Debra started creating art in the mid 1980s, along with her sisters Katherine Marshall Nakamarra and Lorraine Yungut Nakamarra. Art-making with their mother, the highly-acclaimed Pintupi artist Walangkura Napanangka, the three sisters have inherited her narratives and iconography for representing them.

Debra’s father, Johnny Yungut Tjupurrula, was also a successful Papunya Tula artist, as were her mother's sister, Pirrmangka Napanangka, and her grandmother, Inyuwa Nampitjinpa. Similarities can be seen between Debra's practice and the bold approach of the Papunya Tula movement. This is especially evident in the way the paint is applied in thick, joined dots.