Language Group: Pintupi

Country: Kintore N.T.

Born: 1981

Esther Bruno Nangala is a Luritja/Pintupi woman and the granddaughter of Naata Nungurrayi, a legend of the desert art movement. Esther was born in Alice Springs in 1981 and brought up in Christmas Creek, near Fitzroy Crossing, and later in Kintore. Esther was schooled at Yirara College in Alice Springs where she was taught art and schooled in both Pintupi and English. After returning to Kintore in 1999, Esther started to paint, receiving the benefit of a long apprenticeship under Naata and her skin sister, Nancy Ross Nungurrayi. At the same time, Esther was involved in important cultural initiatives such as the translation of some Pintupi song into English.

Initially involved in some community collaboratives, Esther started to paint in her own right in 2009. Since that time, she has made stunning leaps forward in the development of her own style and stories around the important woman's site of Marrapinti. Esther & Gracie Ward Napaltjarri like many of the younger artist use bright bold colours to show an exciting future of central desert art. She paints bold traditional designs associated with women's sites, ceremonies and the laws of her Country. Esther’s identify specific water-soakage sites Marrapinti, a sacred waterhole west of Pollock Hills. The surrounding Tali (sanddunes) Puli (rocky outcrops) and Punti (vegetation) often feature in ancestral stories and refer to the resting places of the ancestral women on their travels. The influence of her grandmother's work is evident in Esther's paintings, who is known for her representations of Women's Law and Tingari Cycle.