at papunya, west started to paint with geoffrey bardon. he became one of the first members of the papunya tula school, and a shareholder in the company. in the late 1970s, west campaigned strongly within the pintupi community for them to leave papunya and return to their traditional country in the west. he moved back west with other pintupi in 1981 and set up the community of kintore. he was later an important person in the establishment of kiwirrkurra, in 1983. he lived there for most of the rest of his life. he married a third wife in october 1984, takariya napaltjarri. she was the daughter of waku tjungurrayi, and had only come out of the desert a few days before they were married. they soon separated, and takariya remarried. with his two other wives, west had 15 children. he died in 1994.