Mitjili Napurrula was born in 1945 in Papunya, located 200 kilometres west of Alice Springs. She was the daughter of Tupa Tjakamarra and Tjunkayi Napaltjarri, a Pintupi/Luritja artist from Yumari. Tjunkayi had originally sought refuge at the Haasts Bluff (Ikuntji) mission to escape severe drought in the Pintupi lands before eventually settling in Papunya with her extended family.

Growing up in the heart of the desert art movement, Mitjili witnessed the birth of Papunya Tula. Her brother, Turkey Tolson Tjupurrula, became a founding member of the cooperative, and his influence—along with that of her mother—deeply shaped her artistic path.

In the late 1980s, during the “outstation movement,” Mitjili and her husband, Long Tom Tjapanangka, moved to Haasts Bluff. In 1992, they began painting at the newly opened Ikuntji Women’s Centre, quickly becoming central figures in the community’s emerging art scene. Mitjili’s profile rose internationally after she won the Alice Springs Art Prize in 1999.

Her signature style is defined by the Watiya Tjuta (desert oak/spearwood trees), which represent her father’s Tjukurrpa (Dreaming) from Ilyingaungau in the Gibson Desert. Although it was her father’s story, it was passed down to her by her mother through traditional sand drawings, resulting in a unique female interpretation of the spear-making narrative.

This Dreaming is shared with her brother; both held the right to paint the sacred site at Ilyingaungau, where ancestors gathered to prepare for battle. While her brother famously depicted the straightening of the spears (kulata), Mitjili’s work focused on the trees themselves, using bold colours and structured patterns that set her apart within a family of legendary artists.

Mitjili spent her final years at an outstation near Papunya, continuing to paint alongside family and peers until her passing in April 2019.