Nancy Noonju was born c. 1940 on the northern edge of the Great Sandy Desert in Northern Western Australia and spent much of her childhood and working life on Cherrabun Station working as a camp cook and station cook. She had fond memories of ‘Holiday’ times during the wet season when station workers went back to country. 

Nancy Noonju was particular about collecting her own ochre from specific sites, crushing them manually and mixing them into paint using a binder. She was especially fond of a soft pink from one of these sites, and which became her signature colour. 

In this painting, she was remembering the biggest waterhole on Cherrabun Station. She referred to this waterhole as Ngapa, which in Walmajarri means water. Noonju's dreaming was water and wind, “Ngarbel Ngarbel” and this waterhole had particular significance for her.