The Cartography of Survival Nora Wompi’s work functions as a visual record of a life lived in motion. Born in 1935, she spent her early years navigating the Great Sandy Desert, moving through the landscape as part of a nomadic lifestyle. This was not a choice of leisure but a necessity of survival in a harsh environment. Her early existence was defined by the physical realities of the desert—the sand dunes, the rockholes, and the seasonal shifts of the country. This intimate, lived experience provides the foundation for her later paintings, which do not merely depict scenery but map the esse…