Aboriginal painter Lilly Kelly Napangardi spent her youth in the Papunya community, where the contemporary Aboriginal art movement was born in the nineteen-seventies. She watched the first painters depict the legends of her people on canvas, and it was at their instigation that she began painting herself. Lilly Kelly Napangardi's work was quickly noticed, and in 1986 she won the Northern Territory Art Award for Excellence in Aboriginal Painting. In 2003, she was a finalist in the Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award (NATSIAA), the largest prize awarded to Aboriginal artists. She was named one of Australia's 50 most collectible artists by Australian Art Collector magazine in 2006.