Antonia Napangardi Michaels was born on March 6, 1998, in Alice Springs Hospital, the nearest hospital to the remote Aboriginal community of Nyirripi, located approximately 420 km northwest of Alice Springs and about 130 km northwest of Yuendumu in the Northern Territory of Australia. She is deeply rooted in a family of prominent Warlpiri artists, being the daughter of Andrea Nungarrayi Wilson and Chris Japanangka Michaels, and the granddaughter of Alice Nampijinpa Henworth.

Antonia attended St Mary's School in Broome, graduating in 2012. After completing her education, she returned to Nyirripi and took up a role at the Learning Centre run by the Batchelor Institute, an Indigenous Tertiary Education Program. Here, she assisted students with computer skills, contributing to her community's educational resources.

She began painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation—an Aboriginal-owned and governed art centre in Yuendumu and Nyirripi—at the young age of 12 in 2010 and resumed her artistic endeavors in 2014 at the age of 16. 

Antonia carries forward her family's artistic legacy, painting her grandmother’s Lappi Lappi Jukurrpa (Lappi Lappi Dreaming) and her father’s Janganpa Jukurrpa (Bush-tailed Possum Dreaming). These stories, richly imbued with the land's geography and its flora and fauna, have been passed down through generations.

Antonia's artistic approach blends traditional iconography with a modern, individualistic style, utilizing an unrestricted palette and employing patterns in various contexts to express her cultural narratives.

Married to Maxie Jampijinpa Pollard, Antonia is a mother to a son born in 2017. Beyond her professional life as an artist and educator, she enjoys hunting for bush tucker with her family and friends, maintaining a vibrant connection to her cultural heritage and the natural environment.