Letitia Nungarrayi Bartlett was born in 1990 and currently lives in Alice Springs. She is the grand-daughter of Mitjili Napanangka Gibson (1930-2010), a major Pintupi artist who was born in Kiwirkurra, WA. Mitjili had a traditional upbringing and for many years lived in Nyirripi where her aunty, Dorothy Napangardi (Dec) lived. They shared many jukurrpa or dreaming stories and it was Dorothy Napangardi who inspired her to paint. Letitia continues the family tradition of artists painting her father’s and grandfather’s country in Kiwirrkurra and her grandmother’s country, Wilkinkarra (Lake MacKay) in the Gibson Desert.
Letitia began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu and in Nyirripi, in 2018 when she was visiting her family. She paints her mother’s Nguru Winparrku-wana Jukurrpa (Winparrku – Mt Webb Dreaming) a sacred mountain in Pintupi country on the road between Kintore and Kiwirrkurra. Her bold and colourful paintings, her use of traditional shapes and an unrestricted palette, display a modern interpretation of her traditional culture, which has been passed down to her by her parents and grandparents and their parents before them for millennia.
