Warnti - Junjun Jill Jack

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.