Biography:
Nora Abbott was born at Areyonga, came to school in Alice Springs when she was a small child, then returned to Areyonga to finish her schooling at Hermannsburg, which is her father's country, and Areyonga Community. When Kaltukatjara [Docker River] settlement was begun in 1968, her family moved there because it is her mother's country. There she became carer for her mother’s father, and travelled all through that country with him learning the important Tjukurrpa, when and where to find the best bush foods, and her grandfather’s personal history. She describes this as a very special time for her, a time in her life she treasures.
Nora has painted for a long time independently, and then with Tjarlirli and Kaltukatjara Art. She moved to Alice Springs for her health and joined Tangentyere Artists to paint. In particular, she holds the Two Women Tjukurrpa painting the two women travelling, looking around for a home.
Since joining Tangentyere Artists in 2020 she has focused her distinctive figurative style of painting the country she knows well, that of her mother and her father, and in particular, the important family history stories she learned from her mother’s father while living with him as his carer.
Nora Abbott is the cousin of Tangentyere Artists' Nyinta Donald as her mother and Nyinta were cousins.
