Elizabeth Nyumi was born around 1947 near Jupiter Well, south of Balgo in Western Australia, and lived a nomadic life with her family group along the Canning Stock Route. After her mother died, she walked with her father up the stock route to the old Balgo Mission in her late teens.

At Balgo, Elizabeth and Gordon Palmer taught culture to the children at the school, keeping the traditional songs and dances alive. She passed away in 2019.

Elizabeth began painting with Warlayirti Artists at Balgo in the late 1980s and emerged as a leading artist in the late 1990s, often described as the foremost of the second generation of Balgo painters. Her paintings centre on her Country and the abundant bush foods belonging to her family.

Her early canvases echoed sand drawing, painted with a stick. From the mid-1990s she used a brush, creating richer textures and freer colour, and from about 1999 she made sparser works glowing with layered yellows and whites.