In Her Own Words - Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson
Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson is one of the most significant Warlpiri painters working today. Born at Yuelamu (Mt Allan) in the Northern Territory, she carries Dreaming stories from both her father's and mother's country - Sand Dune, Fire Dreaming, Women's Ceremony - and has painted them across five decades, in communities, in galleries, and on walls. We sat down with Maureen at our Adelaide gallery to hear her story in her own words.
On where she comes from
Maureen was born at Yuelamu, the Mt Allan cattle station country in the Northern Territory - Warlpiri country, deep in the Central Desert. It is the country of her father and grandfather, and it is the country that lives in her paintings. The sand dunes. The fire. The ceremonies passed down through the women of her family.
"That's where I was born. I grew up there."
She was one of nine children across two families - four siblings from her father's first family, and five more after her mother remarried into the Brown family. She grew up surrounded by people, by story, by country.
On when she started painting
"I started painting when I was twelve years old, in Yuelamu. Started painting with the ladies - the old ladies there."
Maureen has been painting for over fifty years. She learned not in a class or a workshop but alongside the women of her community, absorbing the stories, the colours and the law that would define her work for the rest of her life.
On her Dreaming stories
Maureen paints the Dreaming stories of her country - Sand Dune (Tali), Fire Dreaming, Women's Ceremony, and stories passed through her mother's line. Of all of them, Sand Dune Country is the one closest to her heart.
"My favourite one is Sand Dune. That is my father's story. Good country. Sand dune country. That's where I come from. Father left us the country."
The sand dune paintings Maureen is best known for are not simply landscapes. They are records of country - of the specific hills, the waterholes, the outstation where her father's family lived, the land he left to his children. Each canvas carries that knowledge forward.
On how Fire Dreaming brought her to Adelaide
Maureen first came to Adelaide because of a painting. She and three other artists - among them Leslie Daniels Jampijinpa, the father of fellow artist Alison Daniels, and her brother Alan Hudson - painted a large collaborative Fire Dreaming canvas together at home in community. The art coordinator picked it up. Someone in Adelaide bought it.
"That big one - the fire one - it's still there."
That painting opened a door. Maureen came to Adelaide, met who would be her husband, and stayed. A city that began as a destination for a single artwork became home. Fire Dreaming, she says, brought her here.
On Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri
Maureen's connection to Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri - one of the most celebrated Aboriginal artists in history, whose work hangs in the National Gallery of Australia, the Art Gallery of New South Wales and the Royal Collection - is direct and personal. Clifford's mother was Maureen's aunt. They are first cousins.
"Clifford was there. He used to come down and spend time with us."
Growing up at Yuelamu, Maureen and Clifford painted alongside each other. When Maureen later moved to Adelaide, Clifford would visit the family at their house in Croydon Park - sitting down, picking up a brush, painting and telling the stories that had shaped them both since childhood.
"He used to come down there and paint and tell the stories."
It was not a formal education. It was family. A cousin who painted beside you, who told you where the stories came from, who showed you what the work could be. That is how Maureen learned from one of the greatest Aboriginal artists Australia has produced.
Clifford Possum was not just family. He was a big man in the community - a painter, a storyteller, a presence. His brother Emmanuel was a church pastor, and Clifford would lead the children in song.
"He used to teach us to sing. He was like a big man in the community."
Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri died in 2002, the day he was due to receive the Order of Australia. His daughter Michelle Possum Nungurrayi - whose work Art by Farquhar is proud to represent - carries his legacy forward as an artist. So does Maureen.
On passing the stories on
The thread of knowledge that runs through Maureen's family is remarkable. She learned from the old ladies of Yuelamu. She painted alongside Clifford Possum. And she has passed what she knows to the generation that follows her.
Her daughter Julieanne Turner Nungurrayi is an accomplished painter in her own right - known for the same precision and colour that defines Maureen's work. And Julieanne's son Farron Furber Jampitjinpa has grown into a painter too - three generations, carrying the same country and the same stories onto canvas.
"Farron - he used to sit next to me. Watch me. I taught him."
What began with the old ladies at Yuelamu now extends to Maureen's grandchildren. The Dreaming stories of her father's country - the sand dunes, the fire, the ceremony - move forward through the family, just as they always have.
On her favourite colours
Maureen's palette is unmistakably hers - deep reds, burnt oranges, the rich ochres of desert sand. The colours of her country. She is drawn to the red desert tones of the Central Australian landscape she grew up in, and they find their way into everything she paints, whether she is painting Sand Dune country, Fire Dreaming or Women's Ceremony.
On what it means when her painting goes to someone's home
Maureen has exhibited nationally and internationally for over four decades. Knowing that her work travels - to homes across Australia, to collections in Europe, the United States and beyond - brings her genuine joy. Her family's stories, her father's country, her grandmother's law - carried across the world on canvas.
About Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson
Maureen Nampijinpa Hudson is a Warlpiri painter born at Yuelamu (Mt Allan) in the Northern Territory. She has been painting professionally since the early 1980s, and her work draws on Sand Dune, Fire Dreaming and Women's Ceremony stories from her father's and mother's country. She is blood cousin to the late Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri AO, one of the most significant figures in the history of Australian art. Her daughter Julieanne Turner Nungurrayi and grandson Farron Furber Jampitjinpa are both painters, continuing a remarkable three-generation artistic lineage. Maureen's work is held in significant collections in Australia and internationally.
Art by Farquhar is a member of the Australian Aboriginal Art Association. Every painting comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.