Lorna Fencer Napurrula was born in the 1920s in the Tanami Desert in Central Australia and was the custodian of inherited land, Yumurrpa, situated near Chila Well, south of Granites Mine Area of the Tanami Desert in the Northern Territory.
In 1949 many Warlpiri people, including Lorna Napurrula, were forcibly transported to the government settlement of Lajamanu. Nevertheless Lorna maintained and strengthened her cultural identity through ceremonial activity and art and was among one of the first to take up acrylic painting at the Lajamanu School in 1986. She asserted her position as a prominent elder and teacher in the community.