Acrylic on Linen

Tasha Nampijinpa Collins was born in 1988 at Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. Tasha is the granddaughter of Ruby Nakamarra Collins and daughter of Vanessa Nungurrayi Collins and Christopher Jangala Gallagher. She grew up in Yuendumu and attended the local School, graduating at the age of 17 yrs. She is married and has one girl, little Napanganka, born in 2014.

Tasha began painting after she attended workshops at the Art Centre during the school holidays but once she finished school she painted on a regular basis, developing a modern individualistic style that incorporates traditional iconography and bright colours to depict her Jukurrpa. She paints her father’s Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming), stories that relate directly to the land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. Stories that have been passed down by her parents and their parents before them for millennia.