Rubina (Ilkalita) Namatjira (1903–1974) was a Kukatja woman and the wife of famous Western Arrernte artist Albert Namatjira. Her father was Wapiti, an Elder from Merini in Kukatja Country in the Northern Territory. As their marriage was forbidden tribally, Ilkalita and Albert eloped in 1919. After returning to Hermannsburg Mission in 1923, where Albert had grown up, Ilkalita was baptised into the Lutheran faith and given the name Rubina. The couple had ten children; five sons and three daughters survived infancy. Their daughter, Nelda, born in 1928, died the following year from scurvy. Another daughter, Violet, born in 1935, lived for only five months. After Albert started painting in the 1930s, often the whole family would travel with him on his painting trips, living off the land. Rubina died in 1974 and is buried at Hermannsburg.
