Leavannia Nampijinpa Watson

Leavannia Nampijinpa Watson was born in 1990 in the Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia.

She has grown up in Yuendumu and did her schooling at the local school. She is the daughter of Jill Nungarrayi and Lawrence Jangala Watson and the grand-daughter of Judy Napangardi Watson, a very successful artist who paints with Warlukurlangu Artists. Although very young, Leavannia first started painting on little boards through the Warlukurlangu Artists Art Association school cultural maintenance program held during school holidays. She has been painting professionally with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre at Yuendumu, since 2008. She paints her father’s Jukurrpa stories, particularly Ngapa Jukurrpa (Water Dreaming) which travelled from east to Mikanji west of Yuendumu. These stories have been passed down through the generations for millennia. She uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture. Her favourite pass time is playing basketball and softball and watching the local boys play football. She also likes going to the disco run by the Yuendumu youth program. She still occasionally goes hunting with her grandmother, and loves trips into Alice Springs for shopping.