Leading Warlpiri artist Judy Watson Napangardi (1935-2016) has exhibited widely since 1990 and has a proud exhibition record covering more than two decades. Living to about 81 years of age, her richly coloured paintings of the Women’s Dreaming story from Mina Mina are dynamic images of this powerful ceremonial site in the Tanami Desert. In the Jukurrpa or Dreaming narrative from this site, the women celebrate the place where the digging sticks rose up from the ground. The women collected up these valuable implements and continued on their journey, dancing and creating new Creation sites as they went.

Judy Napangardi had grown up in a very traditional way at Mt Doreen Station and her family made many trips on foot to her ancestral country on the border of the Tanami and Gibson Deserts, where they lived for long periods at Mina Mina and Yingipurlangu. Judy Watson learned about painting from her elder sister, the famous artist Maggie Napangardi Watson, and the two artists worked together, painting for many years at Yuendumu community. Judy Watson is represented in major national and state galleries including National Gallery of Australia, Art Gallery of NSW, Berndt Museum of Anthropology, South Australian Museum, Aboriginal Art Museum Utrecht and Kelton Foundation.