Helen Nampitjinpa Australian, Walpiri, b. 1959

Helen was born in Papunya in 1959. She went to Papunya Primary School before completing her secondary education as a boarding student at Yirara College in Alice Springs. She then later married her husband Morris Gibson Tjapaltjarri, the son of well-known artist and founding shareholder Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and Ningura Napurrula, also a very successful artist. Helen and Morris moved to Kintore in the early eighties when the community was first established. Their eldest child, Eva Lisa, was born in the Kintore ambulance beside the Sandy Blight airstrip while waiting for the flying doctor to arrives Helen worked at the Ngintaka Women's Centre as an Aged Care worker for over a decade between 1995 until the mid 2000's. During this time, she cared for her husband's aging parents, Yala Yala Gibbs Tjungurrayi and Ningura Napurrula, as well as raising her own children and several grandchildren. During her time at the Ngintaka Women's Centre she also travelled to attend conferences and workshops in Cairns, Adelaide, and Darwin. Helen painted her first works around 2001, but at the time was a very occasional painter. It wasn't until around a decade later that she painted more regularly. Helen's paintings relate to Yilpikarri, slightly north of Docker River and to the south of the Kintore. The main stories for the site are the Mingari (Thorny Devil) Dreaming and the Kungka Kutjarra (Two Travelling Women) Dreaming.