Lorna Napurrula Fencer, whose Aboriginal name is Yulyulu, was born in about 1925 at Yarturluyaturlu (The Granites), a Yam Dreaming site in the Tanami Desert.
Her father's country is Wapurtarli and she is the custodian of Yumurrpa, another important Yam increase centre. Most of her early life was spent in this country with her family before the Native Affairs Branch of the Federal Government established two settlements for Warlpiri people - Yuendumu in 1946 and Lajamanu (originally called Hooker Creek) in 1949.
Napurrula began to paint in 1986 when a Traditional Painting Course was set up at the Adult Education Centre at Lajamanu. She painted with enamel and acrylic paint on recycled building materials and also produced gouaches for use in the bilingual, bicultural community school - the first to be established in the Northern Territory.
Her early works show a love of bright primary colour and a bold design sense. Her painting career, however, has been intermittent due to the absence of a funded art centre comparable with those at Yuendumu or Papunya.
Napurrula held her first solo exhibition at Alcaston Gallery in 1997. Her work has been included in major exhibitions of Aboriginal Art, including Contemporary Aboriginal Art from The Robert Holmes à Court Collection, Carpenter Centre for the Visual Arts, Harvard University, 1990 and Aboriginal Art and Spirituality, The High Court of Australia, Canberra, 1991. She won the Conrad Jupiters Casino, Gold Coast City Art Award, Queensland in 1997 and was invited to participate in The John McCaughey Memorial Art Prize, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, in the same year.
