Bessie Sims NAKAMARRA (1932- 2012) was born in the bush and lived there for many years before coming into contact with white people at Mt. Doreen Station, west of Yuendumu. Bessie Sims NAKAMARRA in Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. Bessie Sims NAKAMARRA married Paddy Sims Japaljarri, a leading artist at the Warlukurlangu Art Centre in Yuendumu, who introduced her to painting when the centre was founded in 1985. Bessie Sims NAKAMARRA belongs to the Warlpiri clan, and as such holds the Dreamings or stories of the primordial Dreamtime during which mythical beings (the Lightning Men, the Rainbow Python, the yam, etc.) created Australia and founded the moral, religious and spiritual laws that still govern today's Aboriginal culture. She is the author of numerous works based on the dream of the Opossum or the Wild Carrot.
Collection :
Aboriginal Art Museum, Utrecht
Art Gallery and Museum, Kelvingrove, Glasgow,Scotland
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth
Australian Museum, Sydney
Donald Kahn Collection, USA
Flinders University Collection, Melbourne
Gordon Darling Foundation, Canberra
Kluge Ruhe collection, Charlottesville, USA
Museum of Cultural History, Oslo, Norway
Museums & Art Galleries of the Northern Territory
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
Shell, USA / Newmont Mining, USA
South Australian Museum, Adelaide
