Nura was born about 1933, in north-western South Australia. The place of her birth is a rock hole called Tjitapiti, which is northeast of Nyapaṟi, and close to what is now the outstation of Angatja. Nura was a "bush baby" (she was born in the bush), and her family lived a traditional, nomadic way of life in the desert around Angatja. Nura was a baby when her parents and elder brother settled at Ernabella, which was a Presbyterian mission at the time.