Isobel Major Nampitjinpa

Isobel Major Nampitjinpa Paintings

Quick Facts

  • Place of Birth: Alice Springs Hospital, Northern Territory

  • Community: Papunya, Northern Territory

  • Notable Family: Daughter of Punata Stockman Nungurrayi and the late Peter Major Tjangala; granddaughter of founding Papunya Tula artist Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri

  • Style of Art: Western Desert painting depicting inherited Dreaming stories

  • Arts Centre: Papunya Tjupi Arts, Arts Worker since 2007

Isobel Major Nampitjinpa is a Papunya-based artist whose paintings carry forward Dreaming stories passed down through both sides of her family, a lineage that includes one of the founding figures of the Papunya Tula art movement. Alongside her painting practice, Isobel has worked as an Arts Worker at Papunya Tjupi Arts since the organisation's founding, and her work has been shown in major exhibitions exploring the ongoing legacy of Papunya art.

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Family and Artistic Beginnings

Isobel was born at Alice Springs Hospital and grew up in a family with deep roots in the history of Australian Aboriginal art. She is the daughter of Punata Stockman Nungurrayi and her late husband, Peter Major Tjangala, and the granddaughter of Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, one of the founding artists of the Papunya Tula movement and one of the men credited with painting the original Honey Ant Dreaming mural at Papunya School in the early 1970s. Isobel has a twin sister, Shiela, and another sister, Maggie.

Themes and Inspirations

Isobel paints the Dreaming stories passed down to her from both sides of her family, drawing on a rich inheritance of cultural knowledge. Her most consistent body of work depicts her grandmother's Dreaming, centred on Country west of Kintore and east of Kiwirrkurra, at a site known as Yumarri. This story tells of a forbidden love between two people of the wrong skin, a narrative she returns to repeatedly to carry her grandmother's knowledge of Country forward.

Family Life and Community Role

Isobel is married to Patrick Poulson, and together they have four children: Peter, Rosemary, and twins Sharnie and Sharenna. Since 2007, the year Papunya Tjupi Arts was founded, Isobel has worked and trained as an Arts Worker with the organisation, contributing to a community-based, wholly Aboriginal-owned arts centre that now supports around 150 artists.

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Exhibition Highlights

Isobel's work was included in Streets of Papunya: The Reinvention of Papunya Painting, a major exhibition curated by historian Professor Vivien Johnson that toured national galleries, including the ANU Drill Hall Gallery. The exhibition placed her work alongside both the founding first-generation painters of the Papunya Tula movement and the new generation of artists, many of them women, who continue to paint out of Papunya today.

Cultural Heritage and Legacy

As the granddaughter of Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri, Isobel carries forward a direct connection to the earliest days of the Papunya Tula art movement, one of the most significant developments in twentieth-century Australian art. Her own practice, shaped by knowledge from both her mother's and father's families, reflects how that founding generation's legacy continues to be reinterpreted and carried forward by their descendants.

Explore Original Works by Isobel Major Nampitjinpa

Explore available paintings by Isobel Major Nampitjinpa and other artists connected to the Papunya art tradition at Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery, or contact us to enquire about a piece for your home or collection.

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