Nura Rupert

Nura Rupert lives at Pukatja community 440km southwest of Alice Springs and is a senior artist at Ernabella Arts. She is well known for her exuberant paintings and prints, which reveal a fertile imagination and keen sense of humour. Her favourite subjects include animals, birds and flowers, which she paints with a great sense of joy.

Nura Rupert began her art career at a young age making hooked floor rugs and knitted jumpers. She also learnt woodcarving and poker work creating snakes, birds, tingka, wira and rabbits. In recent years she has applied herself successfully to the mediums of painting and printmaking and her quirky style has become highly sought after.

Nura Rupert was a ngangkari (a traditional healer among Aṉangu people) who began her artistic career weaving and making punu (wood carvings often decorated with a hot poker). She turned to painting and printmaking in her late sixties, frequently depicting a world of animated and mischievous figures, such as tjitji (children), papa (camp dogs), and various animals. Most frequently, she represented a range of different mamu (spooky spirits) who can be seen and dealt with by ngangkari. While they are sometimes feared figures in children’s stories, Rupert’s spirits are not always malevolent, as can be seen in her cheeky, dynamic treatment of them. In many ways, her series based on specific figure