Junjun Jill Jack

Born: 1950
Skin: Nangkaiti/Kurungal
Language: Wankajunga/Walmajarri
Country: Japinka

Jill Jack (bush name Tjunjun) was born at Christmas Creek around 1955. Her parents had been part of the large desert migrations of the 1940′s and 1950′s, where people moved north towards the cattle station country of the Fitzroy Valley.

Jill Jack’s mother came from Japingka Waterhole in Walmajarri country, and had travelled north with her first, older husband. Her father came from Wirnpa in Wangkajunga country, and travelled via the Canning Stock Route to Balgo, before moving west to Christmas Creek.

Jill Jack grew up with two brothers at Christmas Creek, where she worked for a time at the station homestead. Her children, two daughters, have also lived all their lives at Christmas Creek, which became the location where Wankatjungka Community was established during the 1980′s.

Jill Jack began painting in 2003 for the Wangkatjungka Arts Project organised by Japingka Gallery. Jill Jack paints elements of her ancestral homelands through stories she has inherited from her mother and father’s country. Jill Jack’s work has generated a great deal of interest right from her earliest paintings, based largely on her harmonious use of colour and assured technique.

Selected Group Exhibitions

2004      Jila & Tali – Waterholes and Sandhills, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT

2004      Striking Colours of the Living Desert – Wankatjungka Country, Walkabout Gallery, Sydney, NSW

2004      Artists of Wangkatjungka – Stories of Country, Raintree Gallery, Darwin, NT

2004      Tali and Jila, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2005      Yirmpurr (Living Water) Recent Paintings from Wangkatjungka, Helen Maxwell Gallery, Canberra ACT

2005      “Big Country” Gallery Gondwana,  Alice Springs Northern Territory

2005      Wangkatjungka, Ladner and Fell Gallery, Melbourne, VIC

2005      Wangkatjungka Artists: Stories from The Great Sandy Desert, Tandanya, National Aboriginal Cultural Institute Adelaide, SA

2006      Wangkatjungka- Artists of the Great Sandy Desert, ART MOB, Hobart

2006      Wangkatjungka Group Exhibition, Helen Maxwell, ACT

2007      Wangkatjungka Mapping Country, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA

2007      Desert Mosaic, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA

2008      Wangkatjungka Artists: Canning Stock Route, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle, WA

2009      Desert Rains – Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

2010      Wangkatjungka Artists, Japingka Gallery, Fremantle WA

 

Artworks