Janet Long Nakamarra

Janet was born in 1960 at Anninie in the traditional land of Warntaparri people. She began painting in 1989 as her Aunts May and Molly Napurrula showed her how to paint the traditional body paint designs for her Warntaparri Dreaming. Janet started with small boards and then moved to canvas when the local store in her home town of Willowra started supplying the material. Later on her brother Malcolm Jagamarra a famous Aboriginal artist saw the talent in Janet and taught her advanced techniques of using acrylic paint on canvas. This medium made it easier for Janet to teach people about her culture and the stories handed down from her ancestors.

Janet depicts stories, mythology and religion of her people in her paintings. She is also a Linguist by training and has produced bi-lingual literature. Through hard work and study, Janet gained the status of Linguist with her people and began to teach as a literacy worker at the Willowra School. She produced bi-lingual literature for use in the teaching programmes. Her linguistic talents led her to many contacts with the rest of Australia. When Vivien Johnson began to write her book “Aboriginal Artists of the Western Desert” it was Janet she approached to review and correct any Aboriginal terms that were in the book.

Janet uses her deep knowledge of language to translate her Dreaming stories onto canvas in a way that no other artist is able to achieve. Her paintings have many small details in them that tell a story as a whole. The story that she writes for the paintings is as fascinating as the painting itself. These stories tell of the mythology and religion of her people in a way that any outsider can understand and learn from.

Janet’s paintings have been exhibited in reputable galleries in New York, Hong Kong and Australia.