Yupinya Eubena Nampitjin
Born about 1920, died 2013
Manyjilyjarra, Kukatja, Wangkajunga, Putijarra language groups, Nampitjin skin group
Balgo community
Warlayirti Artists
Eubena and her husband Gimme travelled out of the desert with the drovers and settled in Balgo in the 1950s. While raising their children, Eubena helped Gimme to compile the Kukatja language dictionary with a local priest. After Gimme’s death, Eubena married Wimmitji Tjapangarti with whom she began a famous painting partnership. Her paintings have inspired the work of family members across the desert.
Kinyu
2007, by Eubena Nampitjin
acrylic on linen, 185×124 cm
Warlayirti Artists
National Museum of Australia
Kinyu is the one that grew me up.
Like many sites in this Country, Jarntu (Kinyu) is simultaneously an ancestral being, a story and a place. Eubena’s description of having been ‘grown up’ by Jarntu reflects the intimacy with which Aboriginal people relate both to Country and to the ancestral beings that give these places their power.
