Kathleen Sambo is a Mudpurra/Gurindji artist, and member and director of Karungkarni Art Centre in Kalkarindji in the northern Tanami Desert / Victoria River region of the Northern Territory.
Kathleen was born in the bush near Montijinni station which is located 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.
One of her strongest childhood memories was being taken under water by a karukany (mermaid) when she was swimming at Jamparta (Lonely Springs). Fortunately she was rescued by her family.
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.
As well as painting, Kathleen carves traditional artefacts including kawarla (coolamon) and nullanulla.
(Mudpurra woman, Kathleen Sambo Jahlili Nangari, was born in the bush at Martpa (Montijinni Station) north of Kalkarindji. Her mother and father lived a traditional lifestyle, walking the land, collecting bush foods and hunting for goanna, birds, fish and kangaroo. Kathleen grew up 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 Walk Off.)