Minyintiri was born into a Pitjantjatjara family some time around 1915. He was born in the bush at Pilpirinyi, Western Australia, near the border with South Australia. His childhood was spent living nomadically in the desert with his family. Their homelands were spread over a large area along the border, but they often travelled far to the east for ceremonies. They camped for several years around the Musgrave Ranges near what would later become the settlement of Ernabella. This was before the arrival of White people in the area. The family had their first contact with Western civilisation in the 1920s, when Minyintiri was still a child. They encountered a group of men on camels trying to pull a truck out of a bog.