Simon Hogan was born in the heart of Spinifex country between Paltju and Lingka. Simon was already an initiated man when the Australian Government sent out patrol officers to collect Spinifex people from the area of possible contamination by atomic testing at nearby Emu Fields and later Maralinga. Simon moved to Mount Margret Mission near Laverton but famously, walked the 1000km plus back to his traditional country. Simon was a pioneer for the return to country and succeed in gaining native title in the year 2000. He started painting in 1997 with the Spinifex artists.

Lawrence Pennington grew up as a young boy living a fully traditional life. His initiations as a young man have given Lawrence intimate knowledge in a physical as well as a spiritual sense of the sites and stories of the area he was born and responsible for. He was born just outside the north-eastern boundary of Spinifex at a place called Urlu. Running through Lawrence’s country is the Walawuru (wedge-tailed eagle) Dreaming. The dominant topographical feature is a string of craggy topped breakaways in parallel alignment to the south run a series of thinly connected salt lakes. Like his contemporaries, Lawrence was pulled in to Cundeelee Mission during the patrols of the late 1950s. Lawrence painted in the early years, before leaving Tjuntjuntjara for about 7 years and then returning on a permanent basis.