Joanne Nangala is an Aboriginal artist currently practicing in Paraburdoo. She learned to paint from her mother, renowned Aboriginal artist Pansy Napangardi. From an early age Joanne would sit by her mother's canvas, helping her with her paintings and learning her dreamings. Joanne spent much of her early life travelling around the Northern Territory and Northern WA. She won the "Australia's Indigenous Creations Gallery Best Female Artist" award in 1996.
Her artwork features colours that represent the bush as she remembers it from her travels. Joanne paints acrylic on canvas, often employing the 2-colour technique pioneered by her mother. The women in her family, including her mother Pansy and aunty Eunice Napangardi, are culturally responsible for painting the totem Yuparli, or bush bananas.
These are an important traditional food source for Aboriginal people in the arid regions of Australia.
Joanne is proud to depict this totem in her artworks, as well as dreamings learned from her mother Pansy, including Kungkakutjara (Two Women), Kunga Tutor and Wanabu Water Snake.
