Vanetta Nampijinpa Hudson Australian, Walpiri, b. 2000

Vanetta Nampijinpa Hudson was born on 7 April 2000 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital to Nyirripi, a remote aboriginal community located approximately 430 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is the daughter of Daphne Napururrla White and Peter Hudson and has two sisters. She is the granddaughter of Ursula Napangardi Hudson and Freda Napaljarri Jurrah. Vanetta went to the local school in Nyirripi before attending Worawa Aboriginal College in Melbourne, Victoria. A private boarding school catering for girls in the middle years of schooling. When she finished schooling she returned to Nyirripi.

Vanetta paints her father’s Warlukurlangu Jukurrpa (Fire Dreaming), stories which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her father and his father before him for millennia. She uses pattern and colour to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional culture.

When Vanetta is not painting, she likes to play softball or basketball with her friends.