Biography

Jill Nungarrayi Watson was born near Tennant Creek, a small township located 500 km north of Alice Springs. When her grandfather died, her family moved to Lajamanu where she went to school. She later moved to Yirara College, a coeducational, Years 7 to 10, Indigenous residential School in Alice Springs. In 1983 she married Lawrence Jangala Watson and shortly after they moved to Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community located 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. She had 4 children, three sons and one daughter. Her second son is a Yuendumu Police aid. Jill worked at the local Centre link office for 12 years, working from 1994 to 2010. She had been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 1992. She painted her father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings which relate directly to her land, its features and animals. These stories had been passed down to her from her Grandmother and Grandfather and their parents before them for millennia. Jill exhibited in Group Exhibitions in Florida, USA; Osaka, Japan; and Alice Springs, Australia. When she was not painting she liked to go hunting for Bush tucker and taking her Aunty, Judy Napangardi Watson, goanna hunting.