Ormay Nangala Gallagher was born in Alice Springs hospital. Her upbringing was mainly in Yuendumu where she attended the local Yuendumu school. In 1978 she attended Yirara College and in between 1978 -1979 she attended Sadadeen College. She then moved to Nyirripi where she worked at the Nyirrpi store between 1986-1994. Between 1995 and 2004 she worked at the Nyirrpi school as a teacher. She did her teachers training through Batchelor College.
“I have started painting in 1980’s and I am still painting today. I do dot painting and the dreaming that I paint is about Emu and Water, that dreaming is at Mikanji and that is my fathers dreaming I also paint Pama-pardu and Emu, that dreaming is North of Nyirrrpi a place call Waylka and wantungurru that is also another of my fathers dreaming.”
Ormay Nangala Gallagher's work depicts a particular site of the Yankirri Jukurrpa (Emu Dreaming) is at Ngarlikurlangu, north of Yuendumu. The emu travelled to the rockhole at Ngarlikurlangu to find water. This dreamtime belongs to Jangala/Jampijinpa men and Nangala /Nampijinpa women. In contemporary warlpiri paintings traditional iconography is used to represent the Jukurrpa, associated sites and other elements. Emus are usually represented by their footprints, arrow like shapes, that show them walking around Ngarlikiurlangu eating bush raisins. In the time of the Dreaming there was a fight at the site between an emu ancestor and an Australian bustard ancestor over sharing the bush raisin. There is also a dance for this Dreaming that is performed during initiation ceremonies.
