Selling Yarns

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Jill Nganjmirra: Biography

Artist, Injalak Arts and Crafts

Jill Nganjmirra is of the language group Mayali, Kunwinjku from the Gunbalanya (Oenpelli) region of Western Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, Australia. She resides at Mamadawerre Outstation and is represented by Injalak Arts and Crafts Association.

Nganjmirra's main artistic practice is fibre but she is also a painter using arches paper and bark. She often painted with her late husband Ralph Nganjmirra. Nganjmirra is a multi-talented artist who continually challenges herself, particularly in regard to her fibre art. She has attended print workshops through Museum Victoria and Australian Print Work Shop where she recently completed her first set of edition prints. Nganjmirra has worked as a school teacher and also a linguist, assisting to translate the bible into Kunwinjku language.

Nganjmirra acted as co-curator of Injalak's Twined Together exhibition publication and travelled to Melbourne for the opening of the Twined Together exhibition which is now touring Australia. She attends many workshops and seminars on fibre art around the country. Recently she co-presented a paper at a conference in Perth with Louise Hamby on baskets and a presentation with Lindy Allen at Museum Victoria on Baldwin Spencer's photographs. Her work has been selected for the 23rd Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award.

Recent exhibitions from 2005 include: Twined Together. Kunmadj Njalehnjaleken, National Touring Exhibition, Museum Victoria and Woven Forms: Contemporary Basket making in Australia, Object Gallery, Sydney and national tour.

See also: Abstract of Jill Nganjmirra's paper:
Twined Together: Issues, outcomes and the the Monica factor