Wawiriya Burton was a senior woman and Ngangkari (traditional healer) from the Amata
community. She began painting at Tjala Arts in 2008, before which she specialised in baskets
and punu (wood carvings). Wawiriya was an important cultural leader, passing on strong
traditional cultural knowledge as demonstrated in her expressive paintings of her country. In
these paintings, Wawiriya tells the story of her father’s country near Pipalyatjara, west of Amata in South Australia. A natural talent, her work gained fast recognition, and Wawiriya was selected seven times as a finalist in the National Indigenous Art Awards at the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory and four times as a finalist in the Wynne Prize at the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
In 2018 Wawiriya received the Roberts Family Prize at the Wynne Prize. Her works are held in numerous institutional collections both nationally and internationally..
