Biography

Polly Anne Napangardi Dixon was born in 1980 in Darwin although her parents lived in Lajamanu, an Aboriginal community in semi-arid country on the edge of the Tanami Desert, halfway between Darwin and Alice Springs in the NT of Australia. In the early 80s, when Polly Anne was a little girl, they moved to Yuendumu. She has two sisters and one brother. Her parents passed away several years ago and both her grandparents have passed away. Polly Anne went to Yuendumu Primary School then to Kormilda College, an Aboriginal boarding college in Darwin. When she finished her schooling she returned to Yuendumu where she worked as a receptionist for the Central Desert Shire (CDS), Centrelink/Council. When the office closed Polly Anne moved to Kalkaringi and from 2002 to 2005 worked on the Mount Theo Youth Program. Through her work she has traveled to Melbourne where she attended a workshop on youth funding for NT; and Canberra, Sydney, Adelaide and Ballarat. She also worked for PAW Media and Communications in camera and film editing, but now paints full time. In 2006 she met and married Cedric King. Polly Anne has two daughters from a previous relationship and two sons with Cedric. Polly Anne has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu, since 2006. Both her parents painted. She finds painting exciting, “I love the colours, and on weekends, when my kids are asleep, I paint Mina Mina Jukurrpa, Dreaming relating to Janyinki, my father’s country. When I was little my father took me there.” When Polly Anne is not painting she likes to go bushwalking with her friends and “I like to Google and see the outside – the other side of the world.”