DOB:

Birth site: Lajamanu

Language: Luritja Walpiri EnglishSSS Anmatyerre

 

Laati was born in Alice Springs. Her father is  the son of a Scottish New Zealand Doctor and her mother is Ada Andy Napaltjarri from Karrinyarra. Laati was named after her grandmother’s mother’s sister and has grown up with English and Luritja as her first languages.

Laati was the girl who stayed home with her mother and participated in the life on the land and in ceremony with all the family. She watched her mother and sisters and grandmother painting. In fact everyone she knew painted for a living and painted in ceremony.

As an Artist in her own right she has been disciplined in the families traditional way of painting. There were no expectations on Laati to be an artist. She grew up knowing she was one. Painting is part of the expression of ceremonial life that still exists however fragile it has become. The  passing on of culture and story has come to her through watching: being with her mother as she paints and hearing her stories. As a child she watched her mother & grandmother's hands draw the story in the sand.