[1] Nike Okundaye was born May 23, 1951 in Ogidi, Kogi State, in North-Central Nigeria,[2] and was brought up amidst the Yoruba traditional weaving and dyeing as practised in her home town.

Her parents and great grandmother were musicians and craftspeople, who specialized in the areas of cloth weaving, adire making, indigo dyeing and leather.

Growing up in Osogbo, which is recognized as a major centre for art and culture in Nigeria,[5] young Nike was exposed to the indigo dyeing and adire production that dominated her informal training.

[6] Over the past twenty years, Davies-Okundaye has conducted workshops on traditional Nigerian textiles for audiences in the United States and Europe.

"[8] According to a CNBC Africa interview, she trained more than 3,000 young Nigerians for free and she continues to help by funding many poor to establish their small businesses and art workshops in different parts of Nigeria.

[9] According to Kim Marie Vaz, folklore often intermingles with personal experiences to express disheartening subjects regarding female suffering.

Davies-Okundaye was included in the 2019 show I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa at the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in Washington, D C.[16] In April of the same year, she was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate by Rhodes University during its annual graduation ceremonies.

[19][20][21][22] In 2024, She was given the U.S. Exchange Alumni Lifetime Achievement Award to recognise her significant contributions to the arts and longstanding cultural relationship between the U.S. and Nigeria.