Yalti Napangati

Yalti Napangati is also one of the earliest known Aboriginal artists and a member of the Pintupi nine, which was the last group of Aboriginal people practising the ancient nomadic life. She is regarded as a legend of Aboriginal art, along with her sister, Yukultji Napangati and husband, Warlimpirrnga Tjapaltjarri.

Early Life and Heritage

Yalti Napangati was born around the 1970s in the Western regions of the Western deserts of Western Australia. She was born in the distant desert nation off the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts and near Marruwa in the West of Wilikinkara (Lake Mackay).

She is a member of the Pintupi Nine- one of the last representatives of the Aboriginal people who lived a nomadic life without any contact with the European settlers until the mid-1980s.

Yalti's parents are called Lanti (also Joshua) and Nanu. She has several siblings, including her younger sister, Yukultji Napangati, who is also a famous painter. In 1984, Yalti and her family left their traditional-based way of life and settled in Kiwirrkurr, where they were first introduced to the European-descended Australians.

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Introduction to Art & Artistic Style

Yalti started her art career when her family relocated to Kiwirrkurra. Throughout the 1990s, she painted together with Papunya Tula artists and became one of them. Her work is regarded as an embodiment of Western Desert art. She uses the ancestral narratives, such as Dreaming narratives, scenery, and ancestral scenes, to gain inspiration.

Many of Yalti’s paintings draw on the landscape around Marrapinti, Ngaminya, Wirrulnga and other important places west of Kiwirrkurra. She traces the lineage paths of women through her sinuous lines and circular patterns, and with the help of a refined dotting technique, gathers the images of travellers who traversed the desert gathering food, conducting rituals, and forming the land.

Her paintings frequently feature the repeated U-shapes, and the lines are observed to follow their course across the sandhills and rockholes, tracing the movement of the ancestors. Her songs are musical and harmonious, as they show both physical and soul aspects of the land. The colours she uses are generally natural and subdued, ochre, cream, red, and black, reminiscent of desert sand and sunlight.

Her visual language combines ancient knowledge with a minimalist aesthetic that reads almost like abstraction to non-Indigenous viewers, yet each form holds deep cultural and geographical meaning.

Highlights and Exhibitions

Yalti has exhibited her works throughout Australia, representing and highlighting Western Desert art.  In 1999, Yalti contributed to the Kiwirrkura women’s painting as part of the Western Desert Dialysis Appeal. Her major exhibitions include:

  • 2020 Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia
  • 2024 Selected Finalist, Ravenswood Women’s Art Prize, Sydney, NSW, Australia
  • 2024 Irrititja palulangguru kuwarritja - from the past, and today', Papunya Tula Artists, Alice Springs, Northern Territory, Australia.
  • 2023 Irititja Kuwarri Tjungu (Past & Present Together): 50 Years of Papunya Tula Artists, Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection,

Her paintings continue to be produced under the Papunya Tula Artists cooperative, and her work has been included in major galleries, fairs, and private collections across Australia and internationally.

Significance & Legacy

The story of Yalti Napangati is truly a miracle: the woman who spent all her life in total isolation in the desert has become an acknowledged name in the world of art in only one generation. Her work reflects persistence and sustained Pintupi culture, coupled with showing how indigenous artists have reconstructed Australian contemporary art.

She is the embodiment of the transition of two worlds, holding the narratives, symbols, and spiritual responsibility of her forebearers as she interacts with the audiences around the globe in her art. Her work is a part of the Western Desert art movement that can be considered one of the most significant and influential movements in the history of Australian art.

Yalti Napangati’s paintings are both personal and communal- maps of memory, country, and story. They express the inseparable connection between land, people, and identity that defines Pintupi culture. Her journey from the desert to the international art scene speaks not only to her talent but also to the enduring strength of Aboriginal tradition in the modern world.

Yalti’s Western Desert Art with Mandel

Yalti Napangati’s journey and transformation from being a nomadic to an inspiration to Aboriginal artists all across the globe is a great story to be shared. Join us at the Mandel Aboriginal Art Gallery and witness her masterpieces. Visit our online gallery, or contact us for a detailed view of her legacy.