Margaret Napangardi Brown

Margaret Napangardi Brown

Artworks

Biography

Margaret Napangardi Brown (1940 – 2013) was born at Mount Doreen Station, an extensive cattle breeding station about 55 km west of Yuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km north-west of Alice Springs in NT of Australia. She was the eldest of four children. When Margaret was young she travelled with her family around Yuendumu and Nyirripi, where she was shown sites and taught in the traditional way.                                              

Margaret married Pegleg Jampijinpa, a successful Pintupi artist who passed away in early 2006. They lived in Yuendumu and had two children, a daughter and a son. After her husband’s death Margaret moved to Nyirripi, an Aboriginal Community 170 km north-west of Yuendumu, to be close to her daughter, Joy Nangala Brown, who paints for Warlukurlangu Artists.   

Margaret painted with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation; an Aboriginal owned and governed Art Centre, from 2005. She painted her Great grand-father’s Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings, which relate directly to her land, its features and the plants and animals that inhabit it. These stories were passed down to her by her grandfather and her grandfather’s father before him for millennia.

When Margaret was not painting she loved looking after her grandchildren and going hunting.