John Nargoodah was born in Nookenbah, near the creek, ‘I wasn’t born in hospital. I grew up in Nookenbah, we used to walk with our old people, my dad who grew me up would walk from station to station looking for work in fencing, yard building, no motor cars in those old days. We would walk to one station and if there was no jobs we had to walk to another station.
At school they gave me the name Johnny, we had to go to the welfare office, we had names that were for alcohol, some gardia on the station gave it to me and my brothers, probably for a joke. My name was Rum, my oldest brother named Brandy, and the other one was Whiskey. So they changed our names to Christian names. Nargoodah sounded like my mum’s bush name and became our surname. I went to shool in Derby hostel and then in Fitzroy Crossing. I went to school until I was 15, then I had to go back to Liveringa station to work, then onto Yeeda and Ellendale and Cherrubun and Christmas Creek.
I met my wife Eva Nargoodah in Fitzroy Crossing and got married at Wangkajungka school. I moved out to Jimbalagudunj with my wife and family in the 90’s. We had nine children.’

In his younger days John worked with an old Aboriginal saddler, Mick Smith, repairing saddle and making bridles. John has since been employed with Mangkaja for 12 years. He is the senior stretcher and studio technician with a strong reputation throughout the Kimberley and training experience with Don Whyte Framing in Darwin. John started working as a stretcher and primer of canvas. Throughout his lifetime he has created art, in particular carving with wood and boab nuts and working with leather. He has taught his sons and many of the young male staff of Mangkaja Arts.

It was at Mangkaja arts that John learnt about print making and took to it easily with his carving experience and attention to detail. John has created a number of limited edition etching and lino prints with Basil Hall Editions and Australian Print Workshop and is in training to facilitate print workshops with younger generation artists at Mangkaja, showing them the skills in fine lino carving and etching work. He has taken to the new medium of scratching tin and has a piece in the IDAIA Scratching The Surface Exhibition in Sydney. John has previously had his work exhibited in Mangkaja Arts Print exhibitions and has been a finalist in many boab nut carving competitions in the Kimberley.

Johns talents with leather have always been known about in the Kimberley region, he is a renowned saddler and station man. But it is only in recent years that he has had the opportunity to explore these skills as an artist, creating a new line of leather stamped jewellery and working alongside Trent Jansen, renowned object designer to create a series of furniture pieces for In Cahoots, an exhibition celebrating collaborative practice and experimentation of mediums in remote Indigenous Australian art centres. Johnny is emerging as a designer in his own right and has been commissioned by the WA Art Gallery to create painted leather hides as part of the Desert River Sea project and exhibition.

PAINTING THEMES/TECHNIQUES:
Station Histories of the Kimberley
Leather works – stamping, burning, objects
Boab Nut Carving
Bush Foods and hunting game
Nyikina cultural practices

GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2020 Auckland Virtual Art Fair Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert, New Zealand.
2020 Partu – Skin Gallery Sally Dan Cuthbert, NSW
2020 Partu – Skin Arc One Gallery, VIC (Melbourne Design Week)
2018 REVEALED Fremantle Art Centre, WA
2017 In Cahoots Fremantle Art Centre WA
2016 Scratching the Surface IDAIA, NSW

ART PRIZES
2013 Kimberley Art Prize Derby WA
2012 Kimberley Art Prize Derby WA

COMMISSIONS
2018 Desert River Sea – Leather works Art Gallery of WA Perth
2015 Fitzroy Crossing Court House Murals Fitzroy Crossing WA
2010 Fitzroy Crossing Hospital Fitzroy Crossing WA

ACQUISITIONS
Art Gallery Of WA
National Gallery of Victoria – Jungarra Chair