Kathleen Sambo Jahlili Nangari

Kathleen Sambo Jahlili Nangari is a Mudpurra/Gurindji artist and cultural custodian of Karungkarni Art Centre in Kalkarindji in the Victoria River region of the Northern Territory.

Kathleen was born in the bush at Martpa near Montijinni station which is in Mudpurra country north of Kalkarindji. Her mother and father didn’t work for the station but lived a traditional lifestyle collecting bush foods and hunting for goanna, fish and kangaroo. Kathleen grew up in the bush learning traditional ways, walking with her tribe to Victoria River Downs and Yarralin before finally settling at Bottom Camp behind the Kalkarindji welfare settlement not long before the Wave Hill Walk-off.

As a young woman, Kathleen worked on Montijinni station where she met her husband and had three children there. Kathleen came to Kalkaringi after the Gurindji staged the Wave Hill Walk-Off under the leadership of Vincent Lingiari. Originally Kathleen lived at Lipanangku near the Kalkaringi police station before moving to Daguragu on Wattie Creek.

Kathleen and her partner, Timmy Vincent, love to paint together in the Art Centre every day.