Peggy Napangardi Jones was born in country around Phillip Creek, north of Tennant Creek. This area is her mangaya (country, Dreaming held from her father). Her mother's Warlpiri country lies between Tennant Creek and Elliot, while her grandmother's Mudpurra country lies further north.
Napangardi stayed in her father's country with her family until she was a young woman; "When I was a kid I was living in the bush - no school...".
Then the family moved out from Phillip Creek and walked to Brunchilly Station, where her mother worked as a servant. Later they moved to Banka Banka Station, moving back and forth between Banka Banka and Brunchilly, living on bush tucker.
As a young woman, Napangardi went with her father and mother to Alekerenge where she married a Warumungu man. In 1970 Napangardi and her husband moved to Tennant Creek, where their three children were born.
In 1996 Napangardi joined the Julalikari CDEP Women's Art & Crafts Program located in the 'Pink Palace' at Tennant Creek and was introduced to a range of modern mediums, including silk painting, various forms of printmaking, acrylic painting on canvas, and pottery.
In 1998-99 three artists were invited to participate in an artist-in-residency program at Julalikari Arts. They were potter Madeleine Meyer, sculptor Alison Clouston and Judy Watson. Through this exchange with artists, Napangardi was encouraged to work with clay and was introduced to wood-carving, just as earlier she had been introduced to silk painting and print making by co-ordinator Alison Alder.
In both 1997 and 1998 Napangardi's work was exhibited in the National Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Art Award and in 1999 she held her first solo exhibition at Alcaston Gallery, Melbourne.
In April 2004, Napangardi had to leave Tennant Creek for dialysis treatment in Alice Springs. Fortuitously, a new art centre Ngurratjuta Iltja Ntjana (Many Hands Art Centre) had opened there and she now attends the centre twice a week between treatments.
