Lydia Young Nungurrayi / Women’s Ceremony (19885)

Lydia Young Nungurrayi was born in 1992 and is a Pintupi artist from the remote community of Tjukurla in Western Australia, near the Western Australian and Northern Territory border. She comes from a highly respected family of artists and cultural custodians, with strong connections to the Western Desert art movement.

Lydia is the daughter of acclaimed artist Marlene Young Nungurrayi and Adrian Young Tjupurrula. Through her family she is connected to some of the most significant names in contemporary Aboriginal art, including her grandfathers Tommy Lowry Tjapaltjarri and the renowned Dr George Tjapaltjarri, as well as artists such as Nosepeg Tjupurrula, Fred Ward Tjungurrayi and Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula.

From a young age Lydia learned the stories, traditions and cultural knowledge of her country from her mother and senior family members. Her paintings focus on important women’s Dreaming stories, ceremonial body paint designs and sacred sites across the lands between Kintore, Kiwirrkurra and Tjukurla. These stories have been passed down through generations and remain central to Pintupi cultural identity.

Lydia is recognised for her distinctive use of thickly applied paint and intricate dot work. Her vibrant compositions combine traditional iconography with a strong contemporary style, creating works that are rich in movement, colour and cultural meaning.

Today Lydia lives in Tjukurla with her husband and two daughters, continuing the artistic and cultural legacy of her family while sharing the stories of her country through painting.

This painting depicts Women’s Ceremony, an important cultural tradition associated with the sacred women’s sites and travelling routes between Kintore, Kiwirrkurra and Tjukurla in the Western Desert.

For countless generations, women gathered at these significant locations to conduct ceremonies, share knowledge and celebrate the stories of ancestral beings who travelled across the landscape. These sites remain deeply important places where cultural traditions are maintained and passed from one generation to the next.

The circular motifs represent important ceremonial sites, while the connecting forms and pathways illustrate the journeys taken by ancestral women as they travelled between waterholes, resting places and sacred locations. The patterns throughout the painting are inspired by traditional body paint and ground designs used during ceremony.

Lydia’s vibrant palette reflects the colours traditionally found in ceremonial decoration and desert pigments. Through her intricate dot work and flowing compositions, she captures both the spiritual significance of these places and the enduring connection between people, ceremony and country.