Tiger Palpatja was born at Piltati rock hole, the sacred place of the Two Serpent Men in the far northwest of South Australia in the 1920s. He lived a traditional nomadic life before moving to the mission at Ernabella where he married Nyalapanytja and worked as a shearer and fencer.
In the 1970s Tiger and his family moved to Amata closer to his homeland. He was a Ngangkari (traditional healer), a senior Law man and was a senior custodian for the Wanampi Tjukurpa the creation story for country around Piltati near Nyapari community,
He had the custodial rights and responsibilities for country around the Mann Ranges including Wati Ngintaka Tjukurpa and the Wanampi Kutjara Tjukurpa - both ancestral stories of epic proportions relating to the formation of the land and rock holes in the region
He also became a respected punu (wood) carver and started painting in September 2004 in his early 80s. His work was soon recognised by the wider art world in which he developed a reputation as an outstanding artist and a great colourist. Tiger was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award in 2005, 2006, 2010 and 2011 and a finalist in the Western Australian Indigenous Art Awards in 2009 and 2011. He moved back to his homeland at Nyapari community in 2009 after living at Amata for many years and began to work with the art centre Tjungu Palya - his work represented jointly by Tjala Arts at Amata and Tjungu Palya at Nyapari.
Palpatja's paintings were exhibited widely and regularly in leading private and public galleries in Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, Broome, Alice Springs, Perth, Fremantle, Singapore and Germany from 2005 to 2011 and have since been included in several important survey exhibitions of art from his region.
Tiger Palpatja's work is held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, the Australian National University, Flinders University Art Museum, the Australian National University, Charles Darwin University, the Art Gallery of NSW and the Art Gallery of South Australia.
