Isobel Major was born in 1975 in Alice Springs Hospital (NT). She is the eldest daughter of Punata Stockman Nungurrayi, who is the eldest daughter of founding Papunya Tula artist Billy Stockman Tjapaltjarri. Punata and her husband Peter Major Tjangala had four more children, twins Sheila and Maggie who were born in 1977 and two sons Farren and Abraham. Peter Major came from Papunya where the family lived and the children attended Papunya School. Isobel went on the board at Yirara College in Alice Springs, reaching Year 9. Soon after this, her father and Isobel went to stay at Mt Liebig where she met and married her husband Patrick Poulson. They stayed at Mt Liebig with Punata’s family and then lived for some years on Illili outstation with Isobel’s grandparents Billy Stockman and Yintinika before returning to Papunya. They have four children: Rosemary, born in Alice Springs, Peter born in Mt Liebig and twins Sharni and Seranna born in Alice Springs. After attending a course at Batchelor College on Women’s Development, Isobel worked at the Papunya Women’s Centre run by World Vision. In late 2007 when Papunya Tupi Art Centre began operating Isobel became its first local Indigenous worker, soon to be joined by her husband Patrick. They have since attended an Art Worker Conference in Alice Springs and flown to Melbourne for additional training.
Isobel is also a painter. She produced her first canvas for the inaugural Papunya Tjupi exhibition at Ivan Dougherty Gallery, College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales (Sydney) in 2007. Her mother and grandfather taught her to paint – she particularly remembered watching Billy Stockman painting at Illili and telling her the stories of his paintings of Mt Denison. Isobel also paints her grandmother’s country west of Kintore in Western Australia, particularly the site of Yumari where she was born. She travelled to Broome with other artists for a Papunya Tjupi exhibition in Broome in 2009. She said that “I like doing painting to give my kids idea that they could paint and so I can learn more too.”
- Writers:
- Papunya Tjupi Arts
- Date written:
- 2009
- Last updated:
- 2011
