Valerie Marshall Napanangka is from the Ltyentye Apurte community, also known as Santa Teresa, in the Anmatyerre / Arrernte Territory, approximately 80 kilometres from Alice Springs. Shortly after her birth, her parents moved to Yuendumu and then to Nyirripi, where Valerie Marshall Napanangka now lives with her husband and their four children.

Valerie Marshall Napanangka began painting in 2001. She paints her father's dreams, linked to his land, its characteristics and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These dreams have been passed down from generation to generation for at least 50 millennia. To represent her traditional dream, Valerie Marshall Napanangka uses traditional iconography, while developing a modern, individualistic style, playing in particular with the space of the canvas and the borders.