Nola Campbell was born out bush on the other side of Tatjarr (close to Patjarr) in the late 1940s. She grew up travelling in the Country between Kiwirrkurra and Kunawarritji. She is related to Charlie Wallabi (Walapayi) Tjungurrayi and Nangkatji Josephine Nangala, whom she called father and mother, and Kumpaya Girgaba, her aunt. Nola lost her parents when she was young and was brought up by Norma Giles’ (nee Carnegie) mother and father, Mankatji Carnegie and Mr Carnegie. Nola was taken to Warburton as a young woman and there she married her first husband, Mr Butler. She moved to Wiluna and later Patjarr, where she later married artist Coiley Campbell.

Nola has been the subject of an Indigenous Community Stories produced film, titled Nola’s Story. The film aired during the 2016 Fremantle Art Centre Revealed Program in conjunction with the Maritime Museum and Indigenous Community Stories.

From Nola: “I remember when I was a little girl, walking to collect water from Tika Tika and taking it back to my family. I remember when Ian Dunlop came out in the 1960s to take photos and film, and I remember my first ‘acting’ job. I remember walking around with family, hunting tirnka (sand goanna), linga (lizards) and lungkarta (blue tongue lizard). I also remember working with Norma Giles, Pirnkanku Carnegie, Mankatji Carnegie, Aubrey Carnegie, Neil Carnegie, Bruce Carnegie and Yeri Carnegie at Patantja (a lake, far from Patjarr). I was a young girl at the time, and I went and got the water, like we did in the early days. I also remember when I was a little girl, staying at Patantja, it was my uncle’s place, my father’s place and all the Brody, Ward and Morgan families. A helicopter would come and drop food off and then leave again. It was a big lake and you could see out a really long way.

When I was a bit older, I went to Warburton for school. I’d stay at the creek, Wirrkili creek, go to school at the mission and then come back to our camp spot by the creek. Sometimes we’d go back to Patjarr, and then one time Mr McDougall found us and took us back to Warburton, when they were testing missiles at Woomera. I stayed there a little while, then I got married and went off to Wiluna. I had my baby close by in Meekatharra. Then I came along back here to Patjarr. I have one son and that’s enough for me.

The stories I tell in my paintings are from my dreaming, which is yurranpa dreaming (honey tree), and from my husband’s dreaming, which is Yunpalara and Wirrwul. I paint my husband’s dreaming because he said I could and it keeps his dreaming alive and strong; it’s also my country. The yurranpa dreaming paintings I did when I painted in Warburton. One of my favourite paintings is one I did called Near the Canning Stock Route. I did this one for John Carty when he came out talking to us about the Canning Stock Route exhibition. I later went to the National Museum in Canberra with Norma Giles for that exhibition.

I like being able to paint the country I grew up in, was born in, to keep it alive. It also makes me think about my mother and my family who used to walk this country long before me.

The country I paint is their country too. It’s my husband’s, my nguntu (mother’s), ngayuku kaparli (my grandother’s) and ngayuku tjamu (my grandfather’s).”