Jorna Newberry / Fire Dreaming

A Pitjantjatjara artist shaped by life between remote communities and Alice Springs. Closely influenced by her uncle Tommy Watson, her wider practice is grounded in Country, ceremony and traditional women’s knowledge. Jorna Newberry is a Pitjantjatjara artist, born c.1959 at Angus Downs in the Northern Territory. Jorna lives between the communities of Warakurna and Irrunytju and the township of Alice Springs where she has lineage.

Jorna started creating art in the mid-1990s at Warakurna, and now paints for Yanda Art Gallery in NT. When visiting her lands she regularly goes bush with the women of her community to participate in cultural ceremonies and bush tucker gathering. Jorna was employed closely alongside her uncle, the late Yannima Pikarli Tommy Watson who is internationally recognised as one of the most significant aboriginal artists of our time and has been a tremendous influence on her wider practice.