Pauline Napangardi Gallagher was born in 1952 in Yuendumu. She went to the local school and soon after married her promised husband who is now deceased. Pauline moved to Nyirippi in 1983. She has five children – three sons and two daughters; she also has 15 grandchildren. Some of her family live in Nyirippi and the rest of them live in Yuendumu, Kintore and Papunya, aboriginal communities in the NT of Australia. Pauline’s country is Pikilyi (Vaughan Springs), a scared water hole located near Mount Doreen station west of Yuendumu, aand approximately 250km north-west of Alice Springs.

Pauline has been painting since 2006 with Warlukurlanga Artist Aboriginal Corporation an aboriginal owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu, a remote aboriginal community 290km north-west of Alice Springs. She paints her father’s stories of Pikilyi Jukurrpa (Pikilyi Dreaming) and Mina Mina Jukurrpa (Mina Mina  Dreaming), dreamings that relate to her land, its animals and features. They have been passed down to her by her parents and their parents before them for millennia. She cotinues to paint through this art centre when she visits Yuendumu, or when canvas, paint and brushes are dropped off in Nyirippi for artists by Warlukurlanga, as they have done since 2005. Pauline loves colour and uses an unrestricted palette to develop a modern interpretation of her traditional aboriginal culture.