About Alice Dixon Nampitjinpa
‘Alice’s birthplace, Talaalpi, is a swamp a little bit to the east of Walungurru, Kintore. This is the artist’s country and her father’s country, Ngurrapalangu, which is a porcupine tjukurrpa. The porcupine was travelling through the sandhills and passing near the two carpet snakes (kuniya kutjarra) that were living underneath the water.
Alice’s father was the elder brother of the late Uta Uta Tjangala, who was one of the original Papunya Tula painters. His tjukurrpa is Pungkalungka at Takpalangu or Ngurrapalangu. Pungkalungka are dangerous ones like monsters, killing and eating people. They live in huge caves in the hills.
Prior to her painting Alice worked for many years at the Kintore School teaching the young girls dancing and the traditions of the desert people. Alice started painting on the “Minyama Tjukurrpa” – the Kintore Haasts Bluff collaborative canvas project. As a painter, she is inspired by her rich cultural heritage and thrives when involved with her stories and lore.
Alice is an active “dancing woman” who travels widely to participate in annual ceremonies and “Women’s Law” meetings. Alice’s tjukurrpa is the porcupine or Tjilkamala. Her story is told in bright colours often utilizing orange and yellow to mirror the ochres that are used in ceremonial body painting. In her tjukurrpa story there is often the porcupine scurrying about rock holes and hiding places looking for tucker while nearby the women are themselves hunting, laying in wait for the porcupine. Alice is a keen hunter and likes to go hunting with Eunice Jack.
Alice also enjoys the other crafts and is involved in producing hand-spindled hairstring for ceremonies and ininti necklaces and mats. She regularly goes out bush to collect ininti seeds then laboriously pierces them with hot wire to make beads for necklaces, bracelets, or mats.
Alice passed away in December 2020.