Bessie Nipper Profile & Artworks

Bessie Nipper is based at Mutitjulu in the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park. She has worked as a Health Worker and as a Cultural Interpreter at the National Park Cultural Centre, teaching visitors about traditional Tjukurpa. She also works with tourists on her family outstation, Umpiyara.

Anangu (Central & Western Desert Aboriginal people) live by the Laws laid down in the Tjukurpa or Creation Period. Coded in the stories of the ancestors or original beings, are guidelines for life, and painting is a way of both celebrating and imparting this vital knowledge.

Bessie has been a long-term teacher for Maruku Dot painting Workshops. Her popular paintings tell stories of Uluru Tjukurpa or Minyma-ku (women's Business) which she sells through Maruku Gallery.

Born: 1969
Community: Mutitjulu
Language: Pitjantjatjara