Eileen Mbitjana was born and grew up at Barrow Creek, in the Northern Territory, where both her parents were also born.
She remembers that they lived on goanna, aherre (kangaroo), ahakeye (bush plum), anatye (bush potato) and katyerre (bush tomato). There was no flour, and rations of tea and sugar were scarce. Her mother worked at the station, looking after nanny goats, milking them early in the morning, and she worked as a young girl, doing the dishes, for rations of tea, sugar, jam and tobacco.
She now lives either at her father's place Ankweleyelengkwe, a community west of Barrow Creek, or at Artarre, her mother's place. Sometimes she goes into the Thangkenharenge Resource Centre at Barrow Creek where they make small canvases to tourists.
In 2000, Mbitjana participated in a Certificate in Art and Craft course through the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education, which enabled her to develop a new way of painting.
Her work was exhibited in a group exhibition, Working together in Art and Craft at Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne in 2000.
