Background
Donegan was born about 1940, at Yanpan, a rock hole near Ngatuntjarra bore in outback Western Australia. He grew up living a traditional, nomadic way of life in the Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra country around what is now the communities of Papulankutja and Mantamaru.
Career
He speaks Pitjantjatjara and Ngaanyatjarra. His family settled at Papulankutja (then known as Blackstone) in the 1950s. Before he began painting, Donegan worked as a stockman.
He was also a hunter and a craftsman well known for making traditional hunting tools (spears, spear-throwers and boomerangs).
During the early 1970s, Donegan helped to set up outstations in the south-western Pitjantjatjara lands. Jimmy"s wife, Nuuniwa Imundura Donegan, was also a craftswoman.
Other examples of her work are now held in the National Gallery of Victoria, the National Gallery of Australia, and the National Museum of Australia. Jimmy Donegan at Ninuku Arts.
Membership
During the midto late-1990s, she was a member of the Tjanpi Desert Weavers, a project of women producing artistic objects made mainly from grass (tjanpi).