Pauline Nakamarra Woods (born 1949) is an Aboriginal Australian artist.[1][2] Her first name is spelled Pauleen in some sources.[3]

Early life

Woods was born in 1949, Vaughan Springs, west of Yuendumu, and grew up in Yuendumu. She later lived in Alice Springs. She is a speaker of the Pintupi and Warlpiri languages.[2]

Career

Woods began painting in 1986.[2]

Woods was one of the founders, and later vice-president, of the Jukurrpa (meaning The Dreaming) Aboriginal-led collective of women artists.[2]

In 1988 she won first prize in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award for her acrylic painting Yarla Dreaming.[3] She was the first woman to win this prize.[2]

In 1993 her work was used on an Australian postage stamp, and she was the first Indigenous Australian woman to do so; the 45-cent stamp showed her painting Wild Onion Dreaming.[4][5]

Her painting Desert Dreaming is on the cover of the School Plan 2015-1017 for Harbord Public School in New South Wales,[6] and her work is held in many private and public art collections.[2]

References