Fabrianne Nampitjinpa Peterson was born at Papunya community, west of Alice Springs in 1965. She attended and lived at Yirara College for four years, where she completed Year 10. The acquiring of a good education was very important to Fabrianne, and in 1982 she worked at the local school as a teacher’s aide, as her English was very good. After leaving Yirara she started painting at Mount Liebig which is further west of Papunya, towards Kintore.