Bai Bai Napangarti

Bai Bai is a senior Law woman of Balgo who was born on top of a hill at Mangkayi. Her country extends from Mangkayi in the Stanmore Ranges to just south of Yaka Yaka. Bai Bai spent her youth and early adult years travelling through her family’s country learning Law and culture. Her grandmother was living at old Balgo mission and came out to find Bai Bai and the family, bringing flour and tea for them to taste. Bai Bai, as a young girl, then walked into old Balgo mission with her father as there were no other people living around Mangkayi at the time. She then moved on to Lake Stretch Station with her father before fleeing from there with her aunties after witnessing a massacre along Sturt Creek. Bai Bai’s husband was the late Sunfly Tjampitjin who was one of the first men to take up acrylic painting in Balgo in the early 1980s and remains one of the most significant Balgo artists. Bai Bai began to paint in 1986 and since then has introduced younger members of her family to painting. Sunfly and Bai Bai had four daughters and one son. Three of the daughters now paint, with the oldest, Pauline Sunfly emerging as a recognised artist in her own right. Bai Bai has travelled extensively for cultural reasons, and in 1989 she danced at the Shinju Matsuri Festival in Perth. She has been involved in several publications including Yarrtji: Six women’s stories from the Great Sandy Desert, 1997, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, which was shortlisted for the NSW Premier’s History Awards in 1998. Bai Bai is a long serving member of the Kimberley Land Council and a strong practitioner of women’s law and culture in Balgo.