Esther Giles Nampitjinpa was born at Yumari, North of the Docker River in Western Australia. Esther is the sister of Tjawina Porter Nampitjinpa and half sister Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa (Mrs. Bennett), raised according to traditional life with her family.  Following the death of her younger brother, the family moved to the settlement of Papunya. Esther eventually returned to live in her country with family members. She is known for her skill as a traditional basket weaver and wood carver as well as her prominence as a painter; Esther is regarded as a dynamic force in Australian art and represented by private and corporate collections around the world. 

Esther paints her mother and fathers dreaming and the traditional homelands associated with her ancestral heritage. These include the sites of Yumari, Punkilpirri and Tjalili. These sites are important for ceremonies and as reliable sources for water and food plants. Esther’s works incorporate the sandunes (tali) and rock escarpments (puli) of her traditional homeland. The concentric circles in Aboriginal Art are loosely referred to as “waterholes”. More specifically the icon has a relationship to ceremonial locations. These may include particular rock formations, medicinal plants and food sources.

In October 2009, Esther and her three sisters journeyed with Ralph Hobbs and Ken McGregor to their ancestral homeland of Punkilpirri in the Western Desert in the heart of Australia. They camped in the same place that they had lived with their families decades before. The three women Nyurapayia Nampitjinpa, better known as Mrs Bennett, Esther Giles and Tjawina Porter sang and clapped as they journeyed to their country. Six etchings were created by Mrs Bennett under a tree that Mrs Porter had given birth to a son decades earlier. As she painted, she sang the stories, spoke to the ancestors and as she finished each one, held it up to the Puli or hills, to the spirits that are the landscape. A 'Chasing the Clouds' film by Ken McGregor and Nina Gubler.

COLLECTIONS

James McCourt Collection

Kelton Foundation

The Lagerberg-Swift Collection

The Luczo Collection, California

The Kerry Stokes Collection, Perth, Australia

The Corrigan Collection, Sydney, Australia

James McCourt Collection, Australia