Ata Ratu was born in Sumba, a small island in East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia. Since the age of 13, she has been playing the four-stringed Jungga instrument, and writing and singing in her native language, Kambera. Ata Ratu's music can be considered a modern form of Sumba's folk music. The main structure of her songs is a couplet poem, known locally as lawiti, which is often used in ritual ceremony speeches in Sumba. Often, at the request of the community, she performs impromptu songs by making new poems based on previous ones. Ata Ratu was part of the Smithsonian/Folkways compilation album Indonesian Guitars which featured Ludu Parinna, a song about rice harvesting. A much respected cultural figure in Sumba, she has performed in various cities in Indonesia, Australia and Europe.