Maria Nampijinpa Brown

Maria Nampijinpa Brown was born in 1973 at Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km from Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia.

She is the daughter of Wendy Nungarrayi Brown and the granddaughter of Paddy Japaljarri Sims (dec.), one of the founding artists of Warlukurlangu Artists, and Bessie Nakamarra Sims (dec.), a successful artist in her own right.

When she was little, Maria would watch her mother and grandparents paint and listen to their stories. She is widowed, lives in Yuendumu, and has two daughters: Antoinette Napanangka Brown, who also paints with the art centre, and Alicka Napanangka Brown.

Maria has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre, since 1995.

When Maria is not painting, she enjoys telling stories to her grandchildren, hunting for honey ants when it is raining, and collecting firewood for cooking kangaroo tails.