Pauletta Kerinaiua

Born in 1982 in Darwin, Pauletta grew up on Paru, an outstation on Melville Island.

She attended school at Wurrumiyanga (Nguiu) Public school then Wurrumiyanga Catholic High School where she completed her HSC.

After training in Business studies and working at the CDEP office in Wurrumiyanga on Bathurst Island she decided to follow her dream of being an artist, which has been passed down to her from her Grandfather.

In 1999 Pauletta moved to Milikapiti, where she started working at Jilamara. As a young women, her artistic career halted for a short period with the birth of her three children. In recent years Pauletta has returned to Jilamara to take up her practice again.

Pauletta likes to paint Kulama designs which represent the initiation ceremony, the time of the year of the cheeky yam. Her Kulama designs are uniquely her own, and have a special spiritual quality. Pauletta is also known for her bombing of Darwin paintings, an important historical story for the Tiwi people. She incorprates the local flora of the Tiwi Islands into her painting of the Kulama ceremony and images of the Bombing of Darwin.