Tuppy Goodwin Pitjantjatjara, Australia, b. 1960

Tuppy Ngintja Goodwin is a senior Pitjantjatjara artist committed to passing on her cultural knowledge to the next generation of Anangu. Tuppy was born in the bush near Bumbali Creek, to her father Nguyarangu, from Docker River, and her mother Emily Nyanyanta, from Wintutjuru, west of Fregon on the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands. 

 

She moved to Mimili with her family at a young age. At the time, Mimili was called Everard Park, a cattle station that was returned to Aboriginal ownership through the 1981 Pitjantjatjara Land Rights Act. Tuppy was a pre-school teacher at the Mimili Anangu School for thirty years, sharing stories through inma (dance and song) and storytelling. She has been painting at Mimili Maku Arts since the art centre opened in 2009, capturing the stories given to her through her heritage in a dynamic and intuitive way. 

 

As the chairperson of Mimili Maku Arts, Tuppy has represented her art centre on multiple occasions since 2009. Alongside her late husband Kunmanara (Mumu Mike) Williams, Tuppy has been a strong leader and mentor to young Anangu in Mimili. Her paintings have been exhibited nationally and internationally. She was first shortlisted for the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Awards in 2018, won the Hadley’s Art Award in 2022 and the Muswellbrook Art Prize for Painting as well as the Arthur Guy Memorial Painting Prize in 2023.