Selma grew up in Hermannsburg where she went to school with fellow artist Ivy Pareroultja. She is an accomplished acrylic artist and has recently started painting in watercolour. 

Selma states about herself: “My name is Selma Coulthard. My Aboriginal name is Nunay. I am a Pertama Maduthara Luritja Tribe from Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs Station) which is located South West of Alice Springs in Central Australia. I was born in Alice Springs in 1954 and grew up at Tempe Downs until the Government started to remove half caste kids from their families and put them in mission boarding homes. I was taken to Hermannsburg (Ntaria) where I did my schooling. It is here that my love for art started when I saw the Namatjira brothers doing their painting in Ntaria and around tourism camps such as Glen Helen and Palm Valley. I have always wanted to be an artist and I just hope that my work will be recognised. No work is the same each piece is unique in its own right. I have created artwork based on my stories: my work on Mulga Spinifex Country, my country where I grew up and lived – Urrampinyi (Tempe Downs), the oasis in the Desert at Urrampinyi, running Waters at Irrmakara, spiritual keepers of our land, my dreaming – the Thorny Devil, animals in my country, paintings depicting women’s ceremonial site (business) and more.”