Napaljarri Kumunjayi Kelly was from the Yinipaka a Warnayaka area of the Warlpiri nation. Her art works are reflective of this.   This area is very remote and not an easy to access as there are no roads now to the place Napaljarri grew up.  Visits by her surviving family to these lands are rare.  The area of permanent water was the site of a huge massacre of Warnayaka people in 1928 just before Napaljarri's birth.  Her formative years were overshadowed by the effects of this Kardiya incursion and complete take of the details of Warlpiri life.