Mary Napangati was born in a bush camp at Lapi Lapi on the Northern Territory and Western Australian border. Mary lived a traditional lifestyle growing up and at a very young age was introduced to gathering bush tucker, bush medicine and craft and bead work used for traditional ceremonies, as well as the cultural knowledge of her country. Mary first began painting in the early 1990’s, at first sporadically as there was no art centre where she lived. The central themes of Mary’s paintings include traditional women’s ceremonies and Tjukurrpa stories which relate to the lands around her homeland, those of her own Country.