Grandmother's country by Marie Napurrula 48x147cm 11117MR

This strong yet finely articulated painting presents Marie Napurrula’s grandmother’s landscape from an aerial perspective, where Country is understood as both terrain and lived memory. The composition draws together multiple aspects of place—movement, ceremony, and connection—rendered through rhythmic patterning and carefully placed concentric circles that denote significant sites across Luritja Country.

As in much of Marie’s work, the painting recounts the long ceremonial journeys made by her grandmother’s family, travelling with two camels between important locations to attend ceremony and maintain cultural obligations. These ancestral routes follow the Luritja road linking Uluru and Kings Canyon, passing through Areyonga and Jay Creek before reaching Hermannsburg (Ntaria).

The story carried within the painting is deeply personal. Marie’s grandmother was taken from her father at Jay Creek at just nine years of age as part of the Stolen Generations. A bush child who did not speak English, her forced removal fractured ties to language, family, and land. Her mother, Imbana, was a traditional bush woman born at Tempe Downs, a senior woman of the Luritja language group whose Country lies around Kings Canyon and the Mereenie Loop.

Born on 19 September 1967 in Waratah, New South Wales, Marie later returned to Alice Springs to recover the cultural knowledge disrupted before her birth. Through painting, she reclaims these stories and passes them on to her seven children, ensuring continuity across generations.

In Grandmother’s Country, the act of painting becomes an act of renewal. By re-mapping these ancestral journeys across sacred land, Marie offers healing to her grandmother’s spirit while strengthening her own enduring relationship with Country.