Margaret Nangala Gallagher Australian, Walpiri, b. 1967
Margaret Nangala Gallagher was born in 1967 in Alice Springs Hospital, the closest hospital toYuendumu, a remote Aboriginal community 290 km from Alice Springs in the NT of Australia.She is the daughter of Pauline Napangardi Gallagher, an artist who has been painting withWarlukurlangu Artists since 2005. Margaret attended the local Yuendumu School but shortlyafter moved to Nyirripi with her family. Margaret still lives in Nyirripi, an Aboriginal community 160kms west of Yuendumu. She is single and has one sisterand three brothers.Margaret has been painting with Warlukurlangu Artists Aboriginal Corporation, since 2007.Warlukurlangu Artists is an Aboriginal owned and governed art centre located in Yuendumu,and has been providing the residents of Nyirripi with materials to paint since 2005. She paintswith her mother and learnt to paint watching her mother and other people in the communitypainting. She particularly enjoys painting with her mother as it is an opportunity for her and hermother to share their Jukurrpa stories, Dreamings passed down to her by her father andmother and their parents before them for millennia. Margaret paints her Yankirri Jakurrpa (EmuDreaming) from her father’s side and this Jukurrpa story belongs to Jangala/Jampijinpa menand Nangala/Nampijinpa women. When Margaret is not painting she is studying at BatchelorCollege in Alice Springs as well as working at the Women’s Centre in Nyirripi.